Note: Seeing those in #runchat and #fitblog, and all over, really, find the time to blog during their busy schedules has inspired me to keep chugging along with mine. In the last month and a half in between posts, I have endured a hellish finals week, taken a 2-week trip out west, have begun a new job (interning at @PortfolioPR and adjusting to the “real-world” 40-hour work week), as well as bumping my mileage up to 60 miles a week. Soon, that number will climb to 70, then 80. I’ll be doing the best I can to continue posting without a major hiatus.
However, what motivated me so into writing a post today is an idiom I have heard ad-nauseam from my co-workers, friends, family members and even girlfriend (yes, even her!). Acquaintances will ask me how long I’m running on a particular, or how many miles I hit this week. The (almost) immediate response usually is, “Wow! You’re crazy!” I cannot iterate how many times I’ve been called insane for the amount that I run. I must admit that it has led me to pensively think about it and if I indeed need to check into rehab or even Runners Anonymous. It’s a thought that typically passes my mind. Yet, what crossed my mind today was the perfect retort and answer to this common proclamation that, I believe, is the truth.
I’m not crazy! You non-runners are the crazy ones.
That’s right.
I just don’t understand why running is considered such an outcast type of hobby. Running, no matter your skill level, pace or past experience, makes you feel good. What other natural actions are there that emit as much tranquility as a 12-mile run in the rain? Strength, peace, happiness, confidence, enlightenment. All have said to have been found on the run. If anything, it’s a mystery to me as to why more people don’t run to feel such bliss. Maybe they turn to drugs. I don’t know. All I do know that anytime I run, regardless of the pace, I always feel better afterwards.
Instead, a heavy majority of people (pun intended) prefer to be on the computer all day, playing video games, not being active and becoming wildly unhealthy. Eventually, as we have seen so many times, these people have health issues as a result of their poor choices. As the couch potatoes become lazier and lazier, runners become healthier and healthier over time, continuing to feel powerful and more energetic. What’s so crazy about wanting to feel healthy, about having more energy? I cannot find a single thing wrong with either.
It’s a natural movement for human beings to search for empowerment, be it through knowledge, job title, annual salary, physical dominance, what have you. Running is the most natural, easiest way to be empowered. It’s the one superpower humans possess, yet seldom use. As explained in Chris McDougall’s Born to Run, the human body is designed to run long distances, and has been designed to do so for thousands of years. Yes, even today. Instead, it is society that has engrained into our heads the running long distances is asinine, extreme and even foolish.
Even at weak points, we runners can take solace in the fact that every once in a while, we deserve that third (or in my case, sixth) slice of pizza, extra scoop of ice cream or that extra beer. Even last night, I had four scoops of ice cream after dinner. Then I realized I better do some abs, pushups and pull-ups to make up for it. Maybe I am a little bit out there?
Any runners agree with me? Any non-runners have a rebuttal to me calling you out? Would LOVE to get a discussion here of the two sides battling it out, defending themselves.
