Why Do I Run?

Why Do I Run?

     If you ask why I run, I will ask you why you breathe. That sums it up for me, but sometimes people need more than that to really get it.

     I run to connect, with my friends and with my dogs and with random people I meet at races. 

     I also run for the solitude.  To be alone in my thoughts, or to not think.

     I run because I enjoy being outdoors.  I love the sun and the breeze, and at times the rain and snow.  But I don't really love the cold.  You lost me there.  

     I run for adventure.  To see new cities, states, back roads and forests all over the country.  And I also run because I like being a hamster on a wheel- running the streets near my home that I know like the back of my hand or the familiar six mile run around the lake at the metro park, that one time I ran 50 miles around.  

     I run to lose weight, but that never happens.  So, I run so I can enjoy pizza, burgers and beer.

     I run long distances because it is fun to do things I thought I could not do.  I run them again because I forgot how awful they were the first time.  There is magic in the misery.

     I run to burn the crazy off my border collies.  Wait, that isn’t possible.

     

     You want to know why I run?  I want to know why you don’t.  I won’t judge, acceptance is the key to happiness.  And I prefer to be delusionally optimistic that one day you will understand me.