Thursday 17 May 2012

Why run?

I have sometimes been asked why I like running.
Thats what its all about

Aside from the delighting in being outdoors, moving across landscape in all types of weather and the genuine freedom that I feel, I suppose a part of the answer comes from the fact that you can't hide behind technology, upgrades and money.

Oh sure, you can spend horrendous amounts of cash on a new pair of shoes, you can spend hundreds of pounds on a new fantastically breathable waterproof or a ridiculous amount of money on the latest and greatest of graduated compression baselayers, but in the end it all comes down to one thing.

On a competitive scale, all that it really boils down to is how far and how fast can you carry your body over terrain.
Thats it.

There is only one real way to upgrade your capaility, and that is to practice. Once you have practiced a certain amount you hit a plateau, and you have to think again, you have to engage in some kind of training and over-reaching. At some point after that, you need to think a bit harder, think about your diet, tweaking your regime so that you can get those minor incremental increases in speed and power.

There is no short cut. There are no "power ups".

There is hard graft, or the knowledge that your efforts have been lacking.

There is no "oh, I bought THIS and its 7 grams lighter so it will make me faster". There is no way to reduce friction on moving parts to gain efficiency, there is no real advantage to having more money to throw at the sport, and thus, no way to "cheat" your way to being better.

There is you, and your willpower to train in order to get better and faster. If you don't go fast, you cannot say someone else has a better this or that. They are simply better, or have trained harder than you. End of story.

Talk of this, that and the other are all stripped away when you run.

Me, enjoying the feeling of running competitively. You can see the enjoyment all over my face.
It doesn't come down to if you have the willpower to win.
Its whether you have the willpower to PREPARE to win.

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