Running
Just finished “Born to Run” by Chirstopher McDougall. I found it randomly in a friend’s car and I frantically finished it 10 minutes ago at 3:20 a.m. because I need to return it by this afternoon.
I was interested in reading the book since I started running longer and more consistently this summer. I wanted to learn how to run better and discover the secret behind running the way that the reclusive super running tribe called the Tarahumara in Mexico do it. McDougall discusses how well-equipped our bodies are made for running and how we learned to screw it up in the last few decades when we wore expensive sneakers that only increased our running injuries. He doesn’t go over technique or form in so much detail, although he does go over our anatomy and physique and how it’s evolved to help us run, even outrun, animals.
But the biggest lesson I learned from his book, other than that sneakers hinder your running, is that the key to running is really love and love for life. It sounds so stupid and cheesy but it’s true. I found this true in my own running although I didn’t quite realize it. When I run, it takes me a good ten minutes to calm my mind down. My mind starts to wander a lot and I get easily distracted when I think about how tired I am or the mundane things of life like jobs, dating, who I’m mad at and what not. But when I’m in the present, when I’m in the moment and I focus on how great it is for me to be running, how thankful I am to be healthy, how beautiful nature is when I take in my surroundings and my heart is full of gratitude for God’s blessing in my life, or if I’m praying for others, I feel like I can run forever. Sure nice weather or friendly competition helps, but it’s really just gratitude and love that can help me focus and continuing running.
There was this one time where I was running for almost two hours and although I was tired, I felt this incredible joy and I started laughing. I have never felt anything like that when I was running and thought it must be what it’s like to take drugs. Call it second wind or runner’s high, I feel like the secret to running is really love. When you run solely for pride, competition or to have a firmer butt, running is a chore. When you run for love and gratitude, you can really enjoy running for hours.
Dr. Joe Vigil, a long distance running coach with a Ph.D, two masters, made this discovery after figuring out the science end of it. Vigil has 26 national titles for Adams College’s cross-country program, won National Coach of the Year fourteen times and trained Olympians. McDougall writes, “…Vigil had become convinced that the next leap forward in human endurance would come from a dimension he dreaded getting into: character.Vigil’s notion of character wasn’t toughness. It was compassion. Kindness. Love. ”
To exemplify this point, McDougall recounts the life of a Czech soldier, Emil Zatopek, who “ran with such horrendous form that he looked “as if he’d just been stabbed through the heart.” In the late ’40s, he raced nearly every other week for three years and never lost, going 69-0. In the ’52 Olympics, he won gold in the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters and the marathon, which he ran for the first time in his life. When the Russian Red Army took over Prague, they gave Zatopek a choice to run for them or to clean toilets. Zatopek chose the latter and faded into history.
Zapotek’s accomplishments, humility, character and enthusiasm was unbridled. His competitor, Ron Clarke, had this to say about him: “There is not, and never was, a greater man than Emil Zapotek.” If your opponent can say that about you, then you’ve already won everything.
Tags: running