“Why do you run, it's so hard!” I think all long/mid distance runners have heard this question at least once whenever they mention to someone that they run. Xc and track, in the eyes of the general public, are sports that are unbearable and difficult to do well in. People have the image of utter pain, difficulty and physical exhaustion when thinking about either sport. But as a distance runner myself, that is not how I view the sport and instead see it as something much more pleasing and less ‘“hard” as it may seem. So why exactly do people view either sport in this way? This is the question that I will try to answer in this post and explore why people would even want to run in the first place.
Going into the basics of either sport is a good starting point of trying to find out why the perspective of each sport is the way it is. To the causal person, distance running would be explained as just running long distances in a race against other people. The entire concept of the sport is to out-endure the other competitors at a speed required to win the race. Physical exhaustion is not something that the normal person enjoys and would like to seek out on a daily basis. This exhaustion is often the bane of many other sports and provides much of the pain that comes along with them. So why would a person who enjoys more popular, skill based sports want to remove most of the skills required and just focus on the part that is usually the most tiring? Exhausting yourself and pushing your body to the limit is really something that the regular person would not enjoy and is why they wonder why people run.
One of the main aspects that I also think would create an opinion like this would be from previous experiences with xc or track. At least at my grade school, both of the sports were the most popular of any of the sports that were offered. Anyone could join and do either xc or track once old enough and were easily the two biggest teams at the school. Along with this, at such a young age kids do not really grasp the idea of pacing while running and often will feel the pain and anguish of going out too fast. This will immediately put bad experiences into many children's minds and without any other followed up experiences with running, it will dictate their perspective of the sport for the rest of their life. This is very well seen and supports the reason why people would not want to start up running or become a runner.
Now when starting a new activity, there are always hurdles to overcome and learning the aspects of the activity may be hard. This is the case for all activities and starting to run and becoming a runner is no exception to this situation. Once again, pacing is still hard to manage and it is a big step for people entering into the sport to grasp all the concepts that come with it. People seem to think that every time you go for a run, you should be trying to push your body to the absolute limits and trying to beat what you have previously attained. This makes the activity look really hard and daunting to the observer and unbearable. This is often the case in many other sports but running is an exception where the human body really can’t handle that on a day to day basis. On hard workout days, pushing your body is definitely the case but isn’t possible everyday and this is a barrier for people trying to pursue the sport. Many people can not overcome this barrier and gain the perspective that is commonly seen.
But once overcoming the barriers that are put upon entering the sport and truly understanding it, it can be something that is truly rewarding and remarkable at that. It's a sport that you have to put massive amounts of time into but once that is done with adequate commitment, the improvements will show. Improvements in your time in a certain distance or event are rewarding to any distance runner and just reflect the effort that you have put in. It’s a sport where you can’t get lucky and achieve something by chance but instead you earn what you get and the improvements you see are a testament to your commitment. This is something that is unique to endurance-based sports and really can’t be found in the more popular, mainstream sports that most people experience.
Another aspect that I think makes it more desirable and a sport that people are attracted to is the limits that it may bring you to. Some people love to stay in their comfort zone and not push themselves out of what is comfortable and others would rather do the opposite. Distance running puts you way out of your comfort zone and makes you vulnerable to how much you can push yourself against the limits that are set upon yourself. I and many others find this as incredibly rewarding and is one of the reasons why people come back to distance running time and time again.
It would be a shame to omit the community side of the sport in this post. Many people may just enjoy the social aspects of running with a group or attending races with masses of people. This is a caveat to being a distance runner and helps motivate people to join or keep people around and in the sport for the long haul. It is always enlightening to feel that you are apart of something that is bigger than yourself. This community does that for many runners and provides a base that brings people back to the sport, time and time again.
These three previous points overcome the common perspective of distance running for some people and get people into the sport while being consumed by it. In the end, if it was not hard, would there really be any reason to do it in the first place? As humans, I feel that we should do things to challenge yourself and grow ourselves as individuals in our lives. In a strange way, the common perspective that distance running is hard actually drives people to do it as they want to overcome it and show themselves that they can accomplish something. The perspective from outside of the running community grows the running community itself and actually should be something embraced and cherished.
At the end of the day, some people will never really understand why distance running is actually popular for people to do. But that is fine, there will never be an activity that suits everyone. I will never understand why people enjoy doing advanced calculus or why people love to watch or partake in other niche sports that I am not interested in. Our likes and dislikes are determined by a variety of factors (genetics, past experiences, etc…) and is something that makes us differentiate from each other. It is what shapes who we are, what we stand for and what we do on a daily basis.
But to finally answer the question on why we run: We don’t run just because we’re good (whatever you define as good) at it. We don’t run because we find it easy. We run because it is something we enjoy, what it brings to us and what it gives back to us on the day to day basis.
-Simone
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