Running is a special sport. It’s you against you. It’s about pain, the tolerance of it anyway. Whoever tolerates the most pain for the longest amount of time, wins. There is, of course, that small matter of God-given ability, but the dynamics of running is the same for all involved: the more you’re willing to suffer, the better the result.
We train day in and day out to delay the onset of pain; the fitter you are the faster and longer you can run before pain rears it’s ugly head. In every race and in every training session – when they’re done right, anyway – there comes a point when things get tough, when you have to choose what you want most: slow down and the pain goes away, keep the pedal down and the pain stays… but the hope of faster times and better fitness stays alive. You have to choose to battle the pain.
I’m all for the back of the packers who walk their first 5k or half marathon, it’s great they’re off the couch and pursuing fitness, but those who are content to stay there are missing something… no, everything, everything that I find glorious about this sport, anyway. There are things you can only discover about yourself when you’re pushed to the brink, when you’re on the razor’s edge, pursuing faster times, pushing human limits. It’s not a mile split – the pace is different for everyone, it’s the pace of pain. The pace when the questions mount, when you’re forced to come up with answers.
Francis Bacon once said,
“It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.”
Pain is the portal to self-discovery… and I’m not just talking about exercise.
I’ve said it a thousand times: if I live to be 100 years old, it will be tough to top the the "Troubles" I had to go through a few years ago. No need to get in to the nitty gritty details… suffice it to say, it just sucked. I was in a valley, and it was a long odyssey of pain, but I grew more and discovered more about myself during that period than at any other point in my life.
So how does one respond to adversity, times of crisis, or when things don’t go their way? Tough times reveal character, tough times provide answers, it’s where we’re molded and shaped.
A great way to discover yourself is to push your body to its limit – run, cycle, swim, climb, lift – whatever - rip off that set of 1000's on the track, and then, do one more. Just because you can...going into that "dark place" is scary, and while self-discovery is painful, man, is it fun.
go hard or go home
Johnny Boy
Well said.
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