Why do I run?

Looking at why all these other people run and what they want to get out of it made me look back at myself. The reason why I started running in middle school was partly because all my friends did it, and partially because I wasn’t really good at anything else. I was raised as an incredibly competitive kid, and I hated losing, and I was bad at other sports, so I tried to win at running. I also met and became close with my best friends to this day running. The satisfaction I got out of running then was to be with friends.  As I ran competitively, the satisfaction I got was beating other people. The best feeling would be when I would be racing and running next to someone else and my heart rate/ rate of inhalations was way lower than theirs and I knew that  I had them beat. 

As I stopped running competitively in high school and went to college, I started to run more as a social and maintenance event. I did it to stay in shape so I could continue to indulge my massive diet. What I’ve learned through running for all of these different reasons is that the results stay the same. I can always set a goal and hold myself to it and complete it. I can always feel great after a run. That’s why I run.

Another cool video by VOX about a guy who trained for and ran a marathon a marathon to see if it actually increases your mood. During the marathon it provides a great perspective on why so many people run. 

This is by far my most favorite article. It brings all of the other posts together, which is kind of surprising for a youtube video on marathons. The guy who runs it discusses how training for a marathon (doing a lot of running)really impacted him emotionally and physically. The things he said really agree with the other articles like Huff Post, Seeker, and Endurancemag that it is good for your. I think that the author of the Endurancemag article and him would have a great discussion on the merits of setting goals and the satisfaction of completing them.

As he ran the marathon and interviewed each person I found myself relating to each one of them. In every single article, I thought back to a time in my life and thought, hey thats why I ran too!

Pretty cool little video by Seeker on how running effects anxiety levels. 

I wonder how the guy in this video would feel about my eating habits. Because a large part of the stress relief and relaxation that I get is from burying myself in sweets and carbs. I think that everyone works differently, but for the most part I agree with the article. 

This article and the NY times article both agree with each other and I love how they both talked about how running impacts the brain, but didn't mention the other one’s topic at all. This just goes to show how deeply connected running and our brains are and how deeply running impacts our brains, and the rest of our lives.

I don't run much during the dreary Washington winters, but when the sun starts to come out in the spring I can't help it- I have to get outside! I admit that being a seasonal runner is not the best for my year round conditioning, but I just hate going outside and running in the winter. It just pierces my lungs and my throat with the cold air and my muscles just feel so much achier after. I wonder if the authors of the Huff Post article have observed these weird things too, or if I'm just crazy. 

One of the reasons why I run-the ability to eat anything I please!

I think the most incredible parts of running is the amount of energy it makes your body use. Almost every night I would have a heaping bowl of ice cream for dessert and not think twice. Other times I would have lunch, a couple hours later eat a pizza, then have dinner a couple hours after that and thought that it was normal. After talking to some friends who aren't runners, they told me that wasn't normal and had me quite confused because I was a lot skinnier than they were and they ate a LOT healthier than I did. Needless to say, they started running more after we had that discussion.

Eating is a huge stress reliever for me, and I realize that may not be the healthiest, but it really works for me. I wonder what the authors of the Seeker video and the Endurancemag article would think when they heard this.

Podcast: Run to the Top Podcast I The Ultimate Guide to Running

This podcast is my favorite one for runners. It gives a professional view of running and how to train like a champ. It deals with all of the stuff besides the actual workouts. It is a great one to listen to if you want to get motivated to get better!

The podcast really focuses on the non running part of running. None of the other posts I have talk about this, besides my post on my diet. I think the creators of the podcast would disagree with my dietary habits but that won't stop me!

I thing the writers of this podcast could have a really interesting discussion with the authors of the Huff Post article about because they share such different viewpoints on running. I’m sure that they could come to a consensus, but they approach the sport of running so differently. 

A cool take by Endurancemag on the mental aspect of running. I love the split of self-confidence, resiliency, and motivation/determination!

This article really resonates with me personally. After my junior year of high school, during the summer I had a job so I couldn't run with my cross country team and I wasn’t really planning on putting in much effort for the next year and was planning on focusing on school. But something clicked and made me realize how much I missed running. So, I ran on my own time, and it was really a grind. But I kept pushing myself to get better and setting higher and higher goals for myself, and by the time school came around again, I had improved more than I had at any other point in my life! The satisfaction of that outweighed the daily grind over the summer, and that’s what mattered. And that is exactly what this author is speaking about and I love it. I wonder if the producer of the VOX video, who ran a marathon, shares the same feelings about running the author of this article and I do.

A cool article by Huff Post that talks about what things that running does to you.

I love how this article and the NY Times article both mention the runner’s high. NY Times goes a little more into the science behind it, but they both arrive at the same conclusion. I think the author of this article and the producer of the VOX video on running would have a very interesting conversation on running and how it affects you. Although the author of this article eventually comes to the conclusion that running is good for you, they give out a large amount of bad things about running too. The producer of the VOX video had nothing bad to say about running and really liked it. 

As I think more about why people run and what they get out of it, the more complicated my answer becomes. People can run for so many different reasons, from doing it just for fun, as a social event, to stay in shape, and even as their job. There isn’t a wrong answer to this question either. 

I think that what we get out of running can be traced back to why we do it. If someone runs for fun, then they might run for a feeling of euphoria, or for a good view at the end of their run. If someone runs competitively/for their job, then what they want out of it is to get better. If someone runs socially, then they want social connections or a good time out of it. The common thing amongst all of these different is the feeling of satisfaction of accomplishing these goals. 

You may notice this as the profile photo of my blog, but it is the viewpoint from the top of my favorite run! it takes about 5 miles to get up there, so by the end of the run, I’m pretty gassed and sometimes I get a runners high after it. Now I totally agree with the Endurancemag article on running, but for most of the runs I do now, all I think about is just the things that are going on in my life and that is when I can sort all of those things out, and the author didn't really discuss this much. Now resiliency and motivation are big parts of running, but for me, being able to be alone with yourself is also quite valuable to me. People that run with headphones in blasting music don't really get a chance to experience that, so I wonder if people who do that, gain less mentally from their runs.

Until reading this article, I thought that a runner’s high was mostly just a cool concept among runners and that there might have been some science behind it, but it was mostly because we were so tired and maybe delirious after a run.I wonder how the chemicals that are released relate to how running reduces stress.  My guess is that the two are quite closely related.