THE ROMANCE OF RUNNING

©Outdooractive

There is a special pleasure in embarking on a run of unknown duration or undetermined distance. It brings time closer. When I set out on a long run, I check the clock and calculate progress. During speed workouts, my mind is focused on the intervals that are yet to come, and even easy runs sometimes have me ticking off sections, with each turn becoming an item on a to-do list. In recent months, I had decided to discard these preconceptions in favor of open-ends, curiosity and adventure.

It is common to understand the pursuit of fitness as a sort of desperate clinging to the shapes, strengths, and vitalities of youth. During moments of peak performance, a person can feel invincible when in fact fitness only delays the inevitable. Sensing life in my legs, I reject that effort must devolve into a grind, that running must always be directed towards a goal. I defer directionality in favour of something that wanders, something that treads on the past and present as much as the future.

Running is the most accessible sport in the world. From training apps to park runs, marathons, and ultra-marathons, the world of running is diverse. Inspiring you to put your best foot forward, it is more than a health trend, but a way of appreciating life. In his book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Japanese author and running enthusiast Haruki Murakami wrote: “Exerting yourself to the fullest within your limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life.”

In this exertion, as the body floods the brain with feel-good chemicals to the point of euphoria, a so-called “runner’s high”, we feel a unity of mind and matter. It may be the closest most of us come to a conscious, legal, non-religious transcendental experience. It allows you to momentarily dissolve into your thoughts and to connect with nature or the cityscape. For some, gaining access to this metaphysical realm makes running a form of therapy. For others, it is more of an escape, an antidote to screens and algorithms, and the noise and restlessness of the modern world.