Running has been a big part of my life for the past 10 years and has slowly grown from something I had to do because I ran cross country to my favorite hobby. It was only recently, however, that I stopped to consider why I liked running as much as I do.
The truth is that running really should not be a fun activity. Running is hard, sweaty, painful and time-consuming. Indeed, when you begin running, your goal is to stop. Of course, that’s not to say that running does not have obvious benefits. It’s one of the healthiest things you can do for your body and it provides a sense of accomplishment. Then again, so is eating asparagus with every meal, and you won’t catch me ever doing that. The simple truth is that, for me, running brings something to the table that other healthy activities don’t, and it took me 10 years of literally running in circles to figure out what that is.
For me, the most obvious benefit of running is stress relief. Over the course of this past finals week I logged exactly 24 miles, and I swear I needed every single foot to avoid completely losing my mind. Running is such a great stress reliever because it consumes you. You can’t be worried about studying or internships or whatever when you’re in the middle of a run because you know there’s nothing you can do about them at that moment—the only thing you can do is put one foot in front of the other and keep moving. There is no other activity that has this effect because there is no other activity that combines the total physical engagement of pushing your body to its limits and the total mental detachment of doing something you’ve done since you were a toddler. For me, this mental detachment is key to my love of running.
One of the complaints I hear most about running is how boring it is. You don’t really have to think about anything challenging or solve any problems when you’re running—indeed, running is essentially the mental equivalent of doing nothing. I totally understand why people have this complaint about running, but for me this lack of engagement is the best part. I find that the physical activity of running and not tripping or hitting an obstacle is enough to keep the hyperactive, “lizard” part of my brain engaged while still being simple enough to allow other parts of my mind to wander. Over the course of five miles, I’ll pass the time by pondering what I would say if I was at the roast of Justin Bieber, wondering why they didn’t just bury all the telephone poles so that trees can’t fall on them, and realizing that we are all half mermaid. Obviously all these thoughts are dumb, but that’s kinda the idea. I don’t need to worry about thinking smart things because I know I’m doing something healthy and positive, and this allows me to let my mind relax and wander. This, combined with the physical exhaustion, is the best recipe for killing stress I’ve found in my life.
Hobart is a liberal arts school, so I get asked the question “Do you meditate?” a surprising number of times. I used to say “No,” but lately I’ve changed my answer. Now I say, “I run.”
