Reader Jo Adams requested that I elaborate on that "feeling of being alive", which I referred to earlier.
Describing running as bringing out "that feeling of being alive" might sound a little ambiguous if you're sitting statically and reading it from a computer screen, even for a regular runner. Of course, that's because there's little chance that at rest the body can fully, mentally replicate or recall the state of endorphin-soaked mind and muscle-throbbing body that results from a good run. But it's not just a rush of the chemicals of happiness, is it? There's something more to a good run that confirms a sense of well being, actualizes it and makes one hunger for more, even perhaps when the muscles will no longer give.
What is 'that'?
Bounding about on two legs is a bit un-modern, isn't it? I mean, for an urbanite, there's unlikely a practical reason: you're not trying to get anywhere in a hurry and you're not fleeing a woolly buffalo (unless, perhaps, the fences have come down in Golden Gate Park). In fact, it's a bit primal. You run, just to run. It is, as the philosopher Socrates described the greatest good, "an end unto itself". That's the start of an explanation.
A good run is like an intoxicating cocktail: one part pure hedonism, despite at times being physically grueling; one part the pleasurable chemical rush of endorphins; one part exerting your mental stamina and pushing, step by step, to reach your personal goals; and, if you're lucky, one part losing yourself in some beautiful scenery and your thoughts in the transitory timelessness of a run.
On a Good Run, every inch of your body and mind is screaming: you are alive and life is good. It's the irrational exuberance of you proving in your own, small way that indeed it is--your running has made it so.
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2 comments:
Wow - you've convinced me. One quick question on this - is there a feeling of being 'renewed' after a run -
Just a thought that occurred to me...
That's a good way to phrase it Jo. There's definitely a feeling of being 'renewed'. In fact, sometimes it's more like being worn so thoroughly through that the recovery is more like being reborn after a revolution.
For a new runner, I think the experience can be almost startling. But the more regularly you run, the more you have to put into your intensity to reach that point.
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