What Has Running Taught You?

What running has taught me:

• It’s okay to be a royal, sweaty mess if it’s for a good cause.
• If it’s worth doing, it’s worth putting in the effort. If it’s not, move on to something that is.
• Even when you think you’ve given everything you can and there isn’t anything more you could possibly leech from yourself, if you dig down deep there is a little more.
• Sometimes things just plain suck…but that doesn’t mean they break you. It means you can acknowledge they suck, but then deal with it. As a great man once said, “If you’ve got an issue, here’s a tissue.”
• That last one sounded a little harsh, but we need to be a little harsh with ourselves sometimes…that’s what keeps us motivated.
• BUT…after that we have to be positive. If you can’t find the smile, fake one. After a while it will start to feel a little less fake.

• Running and training are two separate entities. Training hurts like a beast, it will make you feel like you want to die come that last interval…but in the end it is that much more rewarding.
• When all else may be going to H-E-double hockey stick, if I’ve gotten in a good run for the day, I feel like I accomplished something. I love this quote from Dathan Ritzenhein: “And I realized that I like training, I like to be fit. I like the everyday satisfaction of having done something that most people can’t do. It was something I missed a whole lot. So I really do enjoy the training. I don’t particularly like it when I’m out there doing quarters (400s) and it’s super hard, but I like the satisfaction of having done it every day. That’s what sometimes separates people who always run and always train and people who maybe move on in life and do something else. I think I’m a lot more likely to be someone like Joan Benoit (Samuelson), who keeps going forever, just because I actually really like it, as opposed to someone who stops and never runs again.”
• It’s fun to down unholy amounts of Pop-Tarts in one sitting and make people jealous. They can have all the high fructose junk they want too if they run for it first. 😉

• Running keeps me sane.

Art: Cait Chock Designs

In all honesty, running has given me so much in all areas of my life. People have said it’s a selfish sport, and I suppose it may be at times, but it has made me a better person and I do my best to help others when I can. So maybe in the end us runnerchicks and runnerdudes aren’t selfish…as for being a little crazy, well, that’s another issue.

1)   What has running taught you?

2)   Has running affected the outcome of another area of your life?

Definitely. There have been a few times I would have just melted into a puddle of goo and given up had running not made me a tougher person.