Friday Tri (from last week): Addicted to Exercise

My daughter Sage, 16, has recently become addicted to running. We ran a 1/2 marathon on Memorial Day together and she talked about how hard it was for her to taper. She just felt itchy, full of energy, and wanted to run every day, even though she knew she needed to rest up to get her goal time. She ended up making it by about 20 seconds, after I cracked the whip a lot the last 2 miles to help her along. Now she is hobbling around on a sore foot, but I suspect she will be up and running again tomorrow.

Some reasons she gave me for why she loves to run that really resonated with me:

1. Running has a measurable marker of improvement that other people do not control and that is not subjective—unlike, say writing or singing.

2. While there are obvious physical and genetic reasons that you may be better or worse at running, still improving at it is something that sheer work can achieve.

3. Running can get you into a zone where you don’t easily get distracted by other thoughts. This can feel both cleansing and healing. For a creative person, the idea that some other part of your mind will be used can be very attractive.

4. You are rarely bored by running.

5. Running releases endorphins and makes you just feel better.

6. While running, you feel tough, like you are conquering the world.

7. It’s nice to think about your body as DOING something rather than as looking good in a particular, rather artificial way.