Why We Do It – The Runner's High

“If you have to ask us why we run, then you will never know”. Although the majority of my high school thought this was one of the worst, most nonsensical quotes they had seen, it makes more sense then they could imagine. When people ask me why I run, I truly don’t know how to answer them. I used to say “it’s because I’m good at it.” But for me that couldn’t be it. I’m not alone in this respect. Many track athletes hate running, but they love it at the same time.

“The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare”

I believe this quote, sums it up fairly accurately. As track athletes we love to compete, we love to win, we love to sprint, we love to fly, but we hate to run. I cannot imagine that there are many people out there who say “I want to work myself really hard in practice, but I don’t want to race or anything”. Even during a race, you can be in a miserable amount of pain, but you struggle to beat the guy next to you, or you push yourself to beat that next time. And you thought it was bad during the race. Just wait till you cross the finish line. BAM! Slap to the face, punch in the chest, and enough acid in your stomach and muscles to disintegrate a shoe. And then they call your time, and you realize that you have just got a personal best by a half a second, and suddenly you’re on cloud 9. I’ve never been so happy about a period of time that small in my entire life. Even if I just ran so hard that I made myself sick, nothing can bring me down because I’m floating on thin air.