Reasons to Run

Ivinghoe Beacon

Physically

• Raised heartbeat - I know it goes much higher than my Doctor recommends.  Looking at him I doubt he's a runner and he certainly doesn't understand why anyone why I want to run saying "it's not as if you're training to be a top class athlete so I don't understand why you want to run"
• Strengthening my bones - there's no way I want to have fragile bones when I'm older
• Strengthening my ligaments, tendons around my ankles when I run over rough ground - when I ran with Dave McRoy in Snowdonia I remember having to work hard keeping balance over that rocky ground
• Weight control - a nice steady 10st 7lbs seems about right
• Better, deeper sleep - this is blissful!  Sometimes I almost seem to know when I'm in a really deep sleep and my body is repairing itself
• Listening to my body breathing, working, being in tune - perhaps this is what people who do yoga talk about
• I am more healthy than I was 20 years ago - I wasn't in bad shape but my diet wasn't very good and I did smoke.  I certainly couldn't run far.

Mentally

• The Runner's High - wow what can I say?  I sometimes feel so elated, so much on top of the world, happy and able to handle anything
• Feel unbeatable
• Problem solving; working through problems - the only snag is not being able to remember what I had worked out
• Seeing things clearly
• Makes me feel alive! Especially if its been raining, or cold or maybe after a really fast fluid kind of run
• I feel great all day if I run early in the morning
• Keeping things in perspective
• De-stressing myself - the main motivation that got me going originally

The joy of it

• Listening to the sound of gravel dancing behind me, following my footsteps
• Listening to the rhythm of my footsteps - almost hypnotic and a great way of maintaining a steady pace
• Listening to music on my ipod - Invitation to the Blues by either Tom Waits (the best) or Jennifer Warnes (pretty good), Young at Heart by the Bluebells
• Being the first to run through the new day - such an immense privilege that is utterly priceless especially when I'm the first to run through the dew covered grass
• The challenge of it - I have only once cut a run short and gone back home early
• The satisfaction of it
• Where does this path lead...?
• Every run is different
• The clouds
• The smells in the woods, the pockets of cool air on a summer's evening
• The different seasons
• Running along the edge of fields and noticing how crops have grown, changed colour
• Running through puddles, feeling the water splash my legs and make my feet wet for a bit