Why Do You?

This post marks my 500th blog post.

To the average individual, running does not sound fun. There are always a few teams every year that create shirts that say: "Our sport is your sport's punishment" or something like that. Heck, I'd bet a lot of runners don't really think the idea of running sounds fun. Everyone faces that day where they wake up in the morning, roll out of bed, and fall over because their legs can't hold them up. Stairs are my worst enemy. I have two classes on the third floor of buildings. Which begs the question that I am sure each of us has been asked by that one kid in your 4th period gym class: "Why the (choose your favorite word here) do we run?"

But yet there is a huge world-wide community of serious runners. Flotrack is proof enough that a large conglomerate of people care about what we do. But the key to understanding a runner's mentality is being one. I'm sure that the girl who sits behind you and math and asks you what your mile time is probably won't understand why you choose to run. Especially when 6:50 is a good enough time to get a "Wow, that's amazing!" kind of response.

When you have been in the sport for a while, putting in the training day after day, you know what's legit. I remember when I would have been amazed by 6:50. Nowadays it takes about 3:50 to really get me impressed. Not that I could touch that with a ten foot pole.

And that's what I find so interesting. It takes so much from others to truly amaze me, to get a jaw-dropping time response, yet my abilities (and the abilities of most people who read this blog I have to imagine) are nothing like the abilities of these Olympic caliber 3:50 milers. But I get excited when I cut a half second off my 800m mark. Heck, I'd be ecstatic just to run within a second of PR right now. I don't need to be the best in the world to feel like world champion after a simple rinky-dink track meet at Moravian.

Because what is so great about this sport is that I as much as I am competing day in and day out against guys from different high schools and colleges and states and backgrounds, the one person I am always competing against is myself. Every race, even if I'm way out in front or way behind in the pack, ultimately, I will judge how well I ran based on one person: me.

And let's be honest, I hate losing to a lot of people, but the one person I hate losing to the most is myself.

So that's why I put myself through the hot summer long runs, through the 12x300m workouts, through the races I run with the hopes that afterwards I won't be able to stop puking for an hour. Runners are the ultimate competitors, not just with each other, but with ourselves. Nobody is settling for what they were in the past, just looking ahead to a faster future.

And this means anyone can respect another runner for their goals, regardless of if they are much faster or much slower. That is why there is such a comradeship, a brotherhood, within the sport. We have all bleed together in battle in hopes of bettering ourselves, perhaps the most noble reason to go to war. That is what brings us together and that is why I can't live without this sport.

I run because I know who I was, who I am, and who I one day want to be.

That is why I run.

Why do you?






It's championship season boys. Make something amazing happen.