I've been running this spring. A lot. After running 4 races in 5 weeks, I feel like talking about why I run... if you don't want to listen, well, you've been warned...
I often tell people that I like running 95% of the time, and the other 5% is when I'm actually running. I like being a runner more than running itself. There is some truth to that. There's a lot of pain, a lot of soreness, a lot of time invested into running. And the payback is being in good shape for sports, being really hungry at meals, and getting cool racing t-shirts.
But I also enjoy the feeling of simply making my body move. And there's something about pushing one's limits that is almost addictive. My heart counts out how hard my body is working, my legs and lungs complain when they're getting pushed, but my head decides what I'm going to do. There's a certain point in almost every race when I'm nearing the end that is always clearest in my memory.
In the same moment that I want my legs to move faster than ever and my lungs to supply oxygen, my body is screaming out to lie down in some soft grass and never move again, I want to finish the race, I want to cry, I want to laugh out loud, I want to scream, I want to stop, I want to fly, I want to run for the rest of my life and I'd be fine with my life ending then and there....
And it's in that moment that I feel alive. When I am pushing my body to its limit, when I can feel every part of my body working and every muscle straining, when I want to go faster but know that I can't, when it's all that I can do to keep moving: (inhale) step step step step (exhale) step step step step... then crossing the finish line knowing that I ran to my utmost and found my limit for that day. That is why I run.
In the past several weeks I've set new personal records for:
5k
6 mile run
8 mile run - set and then broken twice
half-marathon
most miles run in 24 hours
most miles run in a week
In an oft-quoted scene from the move Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell expresses his intention to become a missionary to China while still taking time to compete in the Olympics: "I believe that God made me for a purpose. But He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure." After participating in the 1924 Olympics and winning a gold medal, Eric Leddell went to China and served as a missionary until his death in 1945.
I don't expect to win any gold medals or to be a missionary in China, but I know that God made me for a purpose, and he made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure.
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