When I’m running, and I hit a groove, there’s a clarity to my thinking that I don’t get anywhere else.
Then there’s days like today, where every step I take sends sensations of pain and fatigue throughout my body and my entire thought process is cluttered with, “Just stop and walk for a minute”, “No, don’t do that! You know if you do that, you won’t be able to keep running”, “Yes, I will”, “No, no you won’t”.
Then something started making sense to me: running was never meant to be easy. It’s not easy. It’s hard. There is always going to be some manner of discomfort when I run. The problem here is not the pain or discomfort; it’s my unwillingness to accept it. Once I accept it, even see it as my ally, I can move through it.
The pain means I’m getting better and stronger. The pain means I’m pushing myself to new boundaries. Once I accepted the pain in my calves, my thighs, the stitch in my side, I knew that I had to keep going. That I could keep going.
I’m not advocating running through an injury here – if something hurts so bad that you have to alter your stride, stop. What I’m saying here is, if you want to run, and you want to get better and faster, accept that there will be some pain you inevitably must endure and that the pain is on your side. It’s a sign of strength, not weakness.
End rant.
