I spend a lot of time while running, thinking about why I run.
In a nutshell; its because I can.
I know I’m lucky to have legs that work, that can take me where ever I want to go. They may not be fast or particularly coordinated, but they work.
For that I am really grateful.
There may be a time in my life where they stop working, or won’t take me as far, but for now I choose to celebrate by climbing mountains, running in circles around lake Burley Griffin and wearing way too much pink.
I sign up for these things because I want to know that I can do them, and dare I say I often enjoy it. But not all the time.
The first half-an-hour of running is shit. I hate it. My legs beg me to stop, they protest by being more uncoordinated than usual; my mind screams at me to go home, watch tv, eat some ice cream, bacon, chocolate fudge, – heck you can have all three together just stop running!
But then something happens… I let go. I plod along looking at the trees, the birds, the little bunny rabbits, thinking about nothing in particular, smiling at people and enjoying the moment. I stop thinking about work, recovery methods, my training plan, my time/speed/distance and let my mind wander.
Let go and all suffering will cease.
I always struggled with this Buddhist concept but running has helped. I think the Oatmeal sums up the journey to running Nirvana the best with his Blergh comic: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/running
justcoslife 