I have this 10km route that is flat, peaceful, beautiful and
relaxing. It’s the route I lose myself on. My mind drifts to far places.
Sometimes I get to the end and think, ‘Oh, ok, I guess I am done.’ Today, as I
found my comfortable, relaxing pace, my mind again started to wander. I started
to think about why I do what I do. What is my motivation for running?
Pondering in rhythm with my feet crunching the gravel, I
realised a simple fact about my running heroes, people like Scott Jurek, Kilian
Journet, Ryan Sandes: They run to run.
Yep. They run to run. In other words, they don’t run because
they want to lose weight. They don’t run so that they can escape the office.
They don’t run so that they can win races. They run, because of running.
Two of the three athletes I mentioned above have books out.
What strikes me about the way these guys describe running is how vital it is to
their existence. Read the first page of Kilian’s book ‘Run or Die,’ and
you will be out of breath, gasping, desperate for this guy not to stop running,
because if he does it seems like he would die on the inside. Scott Jurek, in
his book ‘Eat and Run,’ gives such a passionate, holistic account of how
he moved up in the ultra marathoning world, that the reader is left with the
deep realisation that everything is his life works together to make him an
incredible athlete. The title is no less dramatic than Kilian’s. Scott explains
how running is just as vital to him as eating.
Passing the halfway point on my own run, I took a gulp of
water, and shifted my thoughts away from my heroes to what motivates us to
run. For many of us it’s a goal. To lose weight. To increase fitness. To run a
PB. These are not bad things, of course, but if we really sit back, we will
realise that we run to...(insert your goal on the dotted line).
The heroes of the sport are motivated by something that goes
much deeper. Their need to run is deeply ingrained in them. It’s not a chore.
It’s not something else on their daily to-do list. Running brings them freedom.
There are stories of Kilian, many hours into a gruelling
race, where everyone else has their heads down, desperately putting one foot in
front of the other, and he runs along, gazelle-like, brushing the passing grass
with his hands and lifting it to his nose to smell, lost in the freedom and joy
of the experience. Another story tells of how he stopped mid-race, to wait for
his friends to catch up so he could enjoy the sunset with them. He runs because
he is in love with what running brings. Freedom. Joy. Peace. Life. This motive,
I believe, is what allows him to get stronger as the K’s pass by, while
everyone else becomes weaker.
What this challenges me to do is to re-evaluate why I run.
It challenges me to put my watch away, to forget my times, to forget what day I
am supposed to do speed work, or hill training, and to find the reason I run. I
truly believe that if we search our motives, and if we run for the sheer love
of running, we will be surprised by how much fun we have, and surprised at how
much better we perform.
The surface under my feet changed from gravel to tarmac,
reminding me I was almost home. I think tomorrow my watch will stay in the
drawer.
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