I once was talking to a friend discussing an upcoming half marathon. The friend said, “I don’t understand why you pay to run.” In some ways, the reason why I run is best described by a quote by Christopher McDougal, author of “Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen“. Not having read the book, I understand that he was quoting a Tarahumara Indian runner, when he wrote: “The reason we race isn’t so much to beat each other,… but to be with each other.”
The best races I attend are the ones with the most runners. If I want to run a long distance by myself, I’ll do a long run, in the early morning away from civilization as much as possible. But, to run a race means to join others in the goal of reaching a specific distance in a certain amount of time. I love to meet new runners along the course. Sometimes, I speak to them. Most of the time, however, we run in silence. One will pull away for a moment, sometimes never to see each other again. Many times, we will trade spots along the route only to congratulate each other at the end. These are the adventures of running a race.
Running can be a very individual event. But it can also be a very quiet social event. It truly is to be with others who are like ourselves.
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Photo from Unsplash.com
Quote from GoodReads.com and Born to Run