Discovery

Running. To some that word is a curse, inflicted upon them only by an evil gym teacher, an experience to be suppressed.However, there is a second group of people. When this group hears the word running, they do not think of the pain and the strain. They think of the simple joy, the natural beauty which is in running.

I belong to the later group. I love to run, usually the farther, the better. I don't see the point to running a sprint. You do all that work to get ready and then, bam! Its over. Just like that, in maybe ten or twenty seconds, the beauty of the run is over. The beauty is over so quickly that you have no way to appreciate it, to really let it soak in, to permeate every fiber of you being. And if you don't let the beauty in, then whats the point of the run?

Now, many people probably are thinking, what beauty is there in running? Well, let me try to answer this question for you. Someone once said that you can't escape your problems by running away. Well, they were wrong. Running away, real running, not running as you think to yourself "Man, running sucks". Running, as in when you are done running it takes you a minute to figure out where you are because you were so into your run that you didn't even watch were you were running. This running clears the mind. The official term for this clear mind is called "Runners Head". Its a state where nothing really goes through your mind, at least not on a conscious coherent level. This clearing of the mind, it does let you escape. You no longer care about whatever it was that was worrying you, because you have become one with the run, with the trail, with nature. You have achieved a state of balance.

So, next time you have a problem and you just want to escape, remember, running away works. Because really, running is not about the destination, or how fast you get there. Its about reaching a balance, about finding yourself in relation to the earth. Running is about discovery.