Think this comes from a note in the 1970s. Jim Fixx still alive, so there’s a clue.
I was editor of ‘The Scientific Study of Distance Running’ but all I can do with any science past biology is dot the tees and cross the eyes.
I actually get biology, practically intuitive, maybe psychology – is that a science? – but I defer to experts on the rest.
Thought of running philosophically.
No amount of science was going to make me fast, no special shoes would ever fly me to victory, but I somehow understood a human being of any age can reconstruct his or her self, mentally, emotionally, as well as physically, by this simple sport.
Forty-percent physical, seventy-percent mental. Not good at math either.
Mental? Thought that was going to be my edge.
Turns out my brain is slow-twitch, too.
Rarely, very rarely, running is an art.
Pre is not lionized simply because he was a great runner. Been a lot of great runners.
Pre was an artist, like a rainbow unicorn spreading glitter, and you didn’t even have to be a runner to see it.
1979, let’s say. (pro tip – always date your bar napkins.)
Many runners seem to be always training, working out, preparing for some future event.
George Betts wrote, “If you worry about tomorrow and don’t live today, suddenly you will realize that all you have are empty yesterdays.”
I’d like to suggest, every so often, maybe once a week, you stop training and just run. Just go out, put one foot in front of the other because you enjoy running, not because you want to finish ahead of Jim Fixx or Jack D. Welch or some other turkey. (Pardon me, Jim.)
Feel the wind in your hair, the grit in your teeth, the pollen in your eyes.
Sense your running.
Don’t work at it, play at it. Pretend you are a child.
Run to be free.
Don’t run because it is good for you; run because it is good TO you.