The closest parallel between life and running is pain. Haruki Murakami wrote in his book When I Talk About Running "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional". I think this quote truly embodies the relationship between the adversity of life.
I have yet to find someone who is a stranger to the lactic acid buildup in the legs or the terrible burn of the lungs. I guess you could call it the veiled beauty of the sport. At the bottom line, running truly does hurt. It is painful and there is no way to escape that inevitability.
Casual runners, competitors, and enthusiasts young and old have experienced the pain of running. It hurts to push your lungs to breath faster and heavier. It is painful to keep your legs moving up a hill or summon the last bit of energy to make it across the finish. The training, or even a simple day when you just feel like crap can be downright tough.
Even more difficult is the mental pain running brings. It is often said that running is 10% physical and 90% mental. And I could not agree more. As I have mentioned before, running is a battle against yourself no matter the level. Getting out there to actually start the run is difficult, but pushing past the physical pain truly is the battle. When it gets hard, there has to be a decision to press on and achieve the goal you have set. Sure, running really can be hard and during a race, the pain is hard to overcome. But at every point, we as runners can choose to be mentally tough, take control, and beat the whatever the run or race has in store.
From a more pessimistic view, running is much like the pain in running. It hurts, its hard, and no matter how long we experience, there will be pain. Beyond physical pain, we all know life is a mental game, one where we choose our course. Only we can decide how strong we will be as we traverse what lies ahead.
What makes running such an important sport is how relatable it is to the journey of life. There is so much to learn from being as runner and pushing through pain. By being a runner, you can learn to translate the mental toughness and ability to push through pain in all facets of your life.
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/running
By simply reading this, I had a feeling as if I ran for 30 min straight.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, every time I run, I tend to reflect on my life haha good stuff
First off, I love the quote you use from Haruki Murakami it really sets the tone of the whole post. As someone who runs about a mile and half each day I have to agree that pain is all mental, your legs want to stop but your heart and mind tell you to keep going. Even though it does hurt, there is no better feeling after you finish a run. As time goes on, these daily runs don't hurt nearly as much however, there is always a bit of pain.
ReplyDeleteI loved your quote "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional" as it is truly an empowering way of thinking. As you said running is certainly pain, but it's a good sort of pain because you always come out stronger before the run mentally. I always go on runs in the middle of tons of homework to get myself in a better mental state to tackle the rest of my assignments after tackling a long run.
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