Why I Run

I am still running. I did a 100k run two weeks ago. 60 years on and still one foot after the next, after the next. I find some peace and solace in that, in being out there, in moving under my own steam from here to there.

I’m much slower than I used to be. But in a strange way, the slower feels stronger.

I haven’t missed a day for 3 months and keep at it. Like this essay and video argues - running, life, is about maintenance. Not the victory but being consistent and every day trying to stay in the same place, at the same level you’ve reached.

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Why do I run?

I have thought deeply over the years of the benefits I receive from running. Counted the physical and mental changes. Listed the emotional and spiritual gains. Plotted the improvement that has taken place in my person and my life. What I have not emphasized is how transient and momentary these values and virtues are.

With just a little thought, however, it should be obvious that physical laws parallel those of the mind and the spirit. We know that the effects of running are temporary. I cannot put running in the bank to save for a rainy day. If not active, I will become dull witted in even less time than it took me to get in running shape. And since my entire persona is influenced by continual running, I must be constantly active. Otherwise the sedentary minded life will totally reduce my mental and emotional well-being.

So, I run each day to preserve the self I achieved the day before. And coupled with this is the desire to secure the self yet to be. There can be no let up. If I do not run I will eventually lose all I have gained-and my future with it.

Maintenance was a favorite topic of the writer, Eric Hoffer. It made the difference, said the former dock worker, between a country that was successful and one that failed. However magnificent the achievement, without constant attention, the result was decay.

I know the experience intimately and personally. There is nothing more brief than a trophy. Victory is momentary. It must be followed by another victory and then another. I have to run just to stay in place.

Excellence is not a certificate attained and put in a frame. It is not sought after, achieved and, thereafter, a steady state. It is a momentary phenomenon, a rare conjunction of body, mind, and spirit at one’s peak. Should I come to that peak, I cannot stay there. I must start each day at the bottom and climb to the top. And then beyond that peak to another and yet another. I must keep running to be a runner.

Through running I have learned what I can be and what I can do. My body is now sensitive to the slightest change, to the slightest outside influence. It is particularly aware of any decline or decay. I can feel this lessening of the “me” that I have come to think of myself, over time.

Running has made this new me, sitting here and now writing this. It has taken the raw material and honed it and delivered it back ready to do the work of a human being. I run so I do not lose the me I was yesterday and the me I might become tomorrow. I run to be where I am. Healthy, alive, strong. I run every day for that alone.

We do not run to win. We run to stay where we are. That's life. The finish line that is constantly moving. We must move with it, run towards it. Without cessation.