Every so often, every runner reaches a point where they ask themselves: why do I run? And by runner I don't mean elites, but anyone who regularly puts on their shoes and goes out to battle their inner self stride after stride, even if it's at 15 minutes per kilometer.
That moment is crucial. Unfortunately we don't know when it will happen or the circumstances in which the question will arise. It's impossible to know what answer we'll give ourselves in that instant when the psyche turns against us. But it's important to know that, in the end, it's always worth continuing to run.
This is not a little motivational speech under the worn-out motto of Yes You Can. No, my friend reader, if you want to stop running today, go ahead. And I'm telling you, running sometimes hurts. Sometimes it's the most immense laziness to fight against the early morning just to complete a few more kilometers. Sometimes things also go very badly and you feel that the downhills are uphills and that the uphills are impossible. Sometimes long silences come in which no obvious progress is seen. Running also sometimes means being completely exhausted for the rest of the day due to the effort or skipping some abundant family breakfast to go do a long run. Running is not easy. At the end of the day, you have to earn it.
But then those rare moments of glory arrive. Maybe an early morning like so many others or an afternoon stuck in traffic. The only thing known about these moments is that they arrive whenever they feel like it, and that's usually when you least expect them. They're uncommon, maybe one every few months if you're lucky, or maybe years instead of months. When they do arrive, though, and even if they last only a few minutes, they're enough to make everything you've suffered worthwhile.
They're moments in which you acquire a privileged mental clarity. Runs in which your body doesn't get in the way and fatigue isn't a problem because everything flows perfectly. Everything falls into place and you achieve a harmony that lets you run at an unthinkable pace without feeling tired. And in that instant, whether during the run or in the minutes after, you realize that yes, that every step has had meaning and that every drop of sweat has been worth it, because you wouldn't have reached that feeling of inner peace and satisfaction if you had given up earlier at some difficult part of the journey.
Have you ever felt something like that? If it hasn't happened to you yet, wait for it calmly. If you've already experienced it you know what I'm talking about and you'll agree with me. In sports psychology this rare and privileged mental state is called "flow," but let's leave the technical details for an article we'll publish next week.
For now I just want to tell you that yes, those moments exist that justify the effort and the day-to-day that sometimes can become so tedious. And those moments make all the bad days we go through worthwhile.
That said, you have to keep running even when the fatal question arises and you can't find obvious answers. Why do I run? Why the hell do I keep running? Even if you don't understand why, just keep doing it. In the end, at some point, you'll have your reward.
