Why we run
If you love running, it’s something you have to do everyday, right away. Even when you don’t want to, you need to.
I was athletic in high school but hated running. After my first year at college, I backpacked through Europe with a friend, and we found ourselves making spontaneous running tours of the big cities. (Running alongside Parisian shoppers on the Champs-Élysées in my shorts and sneakers was an awkward and interesting contrast I’ll never forget.) When I got back to Maine, I didn’t stop running.
I remember the first time I ran 60 minutes without stopping. I’ve never felt so invincible. I could feel my body going through the transition—sore muscles recovering, my pace quickening, my resting heart rate decreasing. In my private life, I was a confused, unsettled 19-year-old away at school. But in my runs I was so calm, my thoughts crystal clear, enlightening. I could control my pace, my distances, think through my conflicts, or just leave them behind when I walked out the door.
I became a runner without even realizing what an involved, long-term commitment I was getting myself into. I was so free on the road, on the trails, anywhere I went in my size 8 Supernovas, that I never stopped to think about the addiction.
Six years later, I still lace up every day. Because here’s the thing—you can never permanently turn your back on running. And the road or trail or mountain or lane will never turn its back on you. Sitting here now, I understand why I first fell for the sport, but what’s more interesting is why I keep doing it. At one time in my life, running gave me the clarity and resolution that I needed, but why didn’t I just stop when I moved on?
Running is so, so simple—all you need is a surface. But as simple an act as running is, it is versatile in its rewards. We all fall in love with running for a reason, but we stick with it for countless more reasons.
Running gives us control in a life of chaos, freedom in a world of obligations, a selfish escape. It boosts confidence, builds endurance, tightens abs. It lets us process difficult feelings and thoughts.
People sometimes ask what we are running away from. What they misunderstand is that running is always, always a way of running toward something. Any runner will tell you that they feel twice as alive after a run as before it. Even when you’re running to get space from a disturbing situation, you’re actually giving yourself space.
Sure, it lets us blow off steam after a stressful day, but it also makes a great day even better. It lets us discover new trails and explore our own hometowns like children again.
We run because it feels good, and when it doesn’t feel good, it at least feels right. We keep plodding on.
Because even if we do run at the same time in the same shoes at the same-ish place every day, we don’t have the same run every day.
—Zoë Romano, ’09
Zoë Romano has a new running goal. In May, she begins running the route of the 2013 Tour de France and will finish one day ahead of the peloton in Paris, to raise money for World Pediatric Project. Follow her progress at zoegoesrunning.com.
