Wednesday, April 24, 2013

How Running Can Make the World a Better Place

I haven't updated my running blog in over 2 weeks and there's a few reasons for that. As I suspected, things were pretty busy once we returned from spring break. There's not much time for blogging when you have a state exam to prepare for and you enter some of the most grueling weeks of marathon training. My marathon training has been going pretty well still, but I just haven't been able to find the words to write lately. In light of recent events, there were no words that really seemed appropriate to write. I was not sure what to say or how to say it even, but nothing felt quite right. I've thought a lot about what I have wanted to say and I want the focus of today's post to be what motivates me to run and how running can make the world a better place.

Although it may seem hard to believe at times, I truly believe that there is more good in the world than evil. However, I do not think that we always see enough of the good in the world. I know a lot of wonderful people, but no one is perfect and we do not all always show the good in ourselves even. I know that I am far from perfect, but I think that we should all try harder to become more compassionate and caring people. I think that we could and should strive to share more of this good with the world. I think that people who are not runners really need to understand how running is just one way that you can share the good with the world.
 
Although some people may disagree with me, I truly believe that running is the purest sport of all. I think that road races are a perfect example of that. Over the past few years, I have run in over 50 road races. I have run 5K races, 10K races, half marathons and many other distance races. I cannot think of a single race that I have entered that has not put at least part of the entry money towards a good cause. One of my favorite races that I participate in every year is a 5K/10K family walk/run for Roswell Park Cancer Institute. One of the main reasons why I run this race is because my family has a personal connection to this amazing place. It's incredible to see people of all ages and abilities, including cancer patients, walking or running to support such an amazing place.

When you see people who have suffered so much in their own lives, it makes you grateful for everything that you have in your own life. It also makes you extremely grateful to be able to have the ability to be able to run and be in such great health. I run for all of those who cannot run, especially those people who would love to run. When people ask me what motivates me to run, I can think of people in my life who inspire me to run. Some of these people are unable to run and that makes me extremely thankful to be a runner. I'm sure that all of my runner friends could think of a person or people or a cause that motivates them to run. I honestly cannot think of just one person or cause that motivates me to run because there are so many inspiring people in my own life. 

I am thankful for all of the people in my life who motivate me to run and I am thankful for having the physical ability to run. The physical aspect of running is extremely important, but I think that the mental part of running is so much more important. Your attitude can easily make or break a run. It's amazing what a good run can do for your own attitude no matter what is going on in your own life or how stressed out you are. If you have never run a road race before, then you probably don't quite understand the runner's high. When you cross the finish line of a race, there is just as much excitement and energy for the winner as there is for the last place finisher. This is one of the best feelings in the world and it makes all of the blood, sweat and tears all worth it in the end.

When your feet hit the pavement for the first step of a run, you are often focused on the finish line. I think that so many of us spend too much time focusing on the finish line and not enough time focusing on the journey there. I think that the same can be said about our own lives. We do not take enough time to appreciate the little things in life or to reach out to one another. A small act of kindness can go a long way and runners display acts of kindness all of the time. You always hear of very heroic acts from runners, but even the little things are what make runners so unique. I cannot think of any other sport where all of the other competitors will wave to you, smile at you or cheer you on. These may seem like very little things to you, but to someone they may mean the world. It only takes one person to change the world, but we could all work together to make this world a better place.

There's so much more that I could say about running and what motivates me to run, but I think that this sums up my thoughts about running pretty well. I challenge each of you now to help me share more of the good in the world. There is an incredible bond between runners, but I think that all people could also use an incredible bond to make this world a better place. There's no reason why you cannot do one small random act of kindness everyday to help us get to where we should be. As I continue my last month of marathon training, I am going to make it my mission to show more of the good in myself. Marathon training has been tough at times, but this experience has given me the opportunity to really remember what motivated me to begin running in the first place. As I finish up this post, here is a recap of what the past 2 1/2 weeks of marathon training have looked like:

Week 24
4/9/13 - 4 miles in 38:39 (9:40 min/mi pace)
4/10/13 - 9 miles in 1:27:17 (9:42 min/mi pace)
4/11/13 - 5 miles in 49:20 (9:52 min/mi pace)
4/14/13 - 19 miles in 3:11:11 (10:03 min/mi pace)

Week 25
4/16/13 - 4 miles in 38:58 (9:44 min/mi pace)
4/17/13 - 9 miles in 1:29:27 (9:56 min/pace)
4/20/13 - 16 miles in 2:42:48 (10:10 min/mi pace)

Week 26
4/23/13 - 10 miles in 1:32:29 (9:15 min/mi pace)
4/24/13 - 5 miles in 48:20 (9:40 min/mi pace)

419 miles complete in 66:46:15 and only 31 days until conquering 26.2 miles!

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