Meaning of running

“Why are you running?” “What’s so interesting to run for you for such a long distance?”

How many times have I been asked these kinds of questions? – I would have to say "uncountable". And whenever I was asked why I ran, I couldn’t answer well enough to make someone who asked me understand. I always had to take it consider again and I couldn’t figure it out after all. As I want to be able to answer this question well, I will write down my thoughts about running in this article to figure out why I keep running.

Recently, though I guess it has already been a long time, running is getting quite popular in Japan (probably not only in Japan but also in many countries including New Zealand). For instance, the number of those who applied to Tokyo Marathon, which is the biggest running race started in 2007 in Japan, was more than 300,000 and the entry rate was 10.3 in 2013. What a surprising number it is! I don’t know how many people applied to this marathon seriously, but undoubtedly there are quite a lot of runners who habitually run every day or several days a week. Some runners run seriously to break his/her own or others’ records, some run for a diet, and some join in a community and just have fun. They all have their own purpose to keep running and the reason they started running is also different from each other. 

For me, though, I haven’t thought that running itself is interesting or funny. In my opinion, the value of running is to make my life more rich or satisfied. To be stronger both physically and mentally by running changes my attitude to be more positive and active. And stresses never build up while I am running. Running makes my thoughts clear and tidied up. Indirectly speaking, running might be interesting because these benefits of running possibly lead to be fun.

/// Expectation and Satisfaction ///

As I mentioned above, I don’t think running itself is interesting. Depends on the distance and the place to run, or the condition of myself, running always includes more or less suffering. If I felt only suffering during running, however, I would never keep it for more than four years. Fortunately or unfortunately, I am not the person who feels happy or pleased for continuously suffering. Then, what exists except for suffering in running? I think it is a kind of expectation. “If I finish running today, can I go one step ahead?” “If I keep running every day, how much stronger will I be?” I often have these kinds of thinking. In other words, I can expect better myself after running.

In addition to that, I can definitely get satisfaction after running. I think the fact I have just run gives me a solid sense that at least it changed myself to some extent or a feeling that it is equal to accomplishing something in value. As I mentioned before, running always includes suffering. The fact I got it over may become a satisfaction after running, such as “I’ve done very well today!” Fatigue I get after running is basically comfortable unless I run too much or in bad condition. This comfortable fatigue gives me a solid sense that I am gradually growing up. I actually don’t need to participate in the competition to get this solid sense. 

These facts may be acquired knowledge. Only those who have kept running know that running can give them feelings of expectation and satisfaction. I also didn’t like running at first. When I started running, I wanted to exercise to improve my body and I was just running without any specific thoughts. In the result of keeping running, however, I realized that I am getting more positive and active. Moreover, I have been trying some competitions. But I sometimes hesitate to start running because I can run comfortably only after running for more than 30 minutes. 10 or 20 minutes’ running is not enough to be the running mode. That means I can’t get any satisfactions when I run for less than 30 minutes. Many people may feel as same way as me. I guess that is why there are a number of people who don’t understand the reason to run. After all, those who have run just a little never realize the meaning of running. If you want to understand it, you need to keep running for ages until you feel changes.

As these are my opinions, some people would be in different side. I guess everyone who habitually runs has their own meaning of running. I am still in beginner level as a runner and I run much slowly than average. I want to run a lot more and I want to improve myself. The important thing is I believe I can do that. I undoubtedly tell you that I will keep running and I will improve myself for running as much as I want.

If you have different opinions, please let me know. I would like to know how other runners think.