For The Love

Have you ever gone a few days without running and you’re not sure how to handle? You start getting a little anxious to get back out there and it can’t happen soon enough. Welcome to the world of long-distance running.

It isn’t done intentionally. You meant to go running yesterday, but something came up. You couldn’t go today because of that one thing and tomorrow doesn’t seem likely either. So, your natural high starts to come down a little while your mood begins to sour and your answers become a tad bit “snippier.” You know that if you could just get in at least 3 miles (preferably longer) then everything would be alright and the world would continue to function normally.

It is something that the world of long-distance runners know… Running is addictive. It is the one thing you didn’t know you loved until you tried it. It’s fantastic, stress relieving and absolutely necessary. If it were a movie, it would be Jerry Maguire because it completes us (sorry, I went there).

When people ask us why we run or why we decide to run 26.2 miles on purpose, we have generic responses that try to convey something that we can’t find the right words for. We all know that it is a combination of feelings. It is something that hits you mid-run (or post-run) that reminds you: this is why I do it. For every runner it is different, but collectively it is the same.

It’s almost as if there is a word that hasn’t been created yet that will be all encompassing of the running experience. Perhaps libermazing (liberating + amazing).

Give it a try: describe running in one word. (word combinations highly suggested)

4 Comments

Brianna on February 11, 2009 at 6:21 pm

How about stress-relizing? A combo of stress-relieving and energizing.

ficciones on February 11, 2009 at 7:38 pm

how about ‘focuhighing’? focus + high? ;)

I dig your combination too tho!

Katrina H. on February 11, 2009 at 7:50 pm

Mine would be “mediterene.” A mix of meditation + serene. My runs are my only “me/selfish” time – and I swear I don’t even think when I’m running – it’s like a mindless but full-body “meditation.” And if I don’t run at all – I get CRABBY. SUPER crabby. Just ask my husband :)

Terresa on March 23, 2009 at 6:04 am

This is very enlightening.

I blogged awhile back about how I just don’t “get” marathon runners. A few people said running helps them deal with some of life’s issues in a positive way (divorce to name one).

The simple time commitment of running long distances regularly boggles my mind (I have 4 young children and get lucky to schedule 30 min/day free for exercise, much less running 25 miles). So it’s was eye-opening for me to see how necessary running is for some people. And some distant day in the future, I may find myself out there running, too.