#breaking5

By: Scott Coon

 Recently, after a particularly exhausting tempo run on the treadmill, I found myself sitting on the ground glazed over with a single question in my mind—why? “Why are you doing this?” Why on God’s Green Earth would you subject yourself to this particular brand of self-inflicted torture? Why would you push your exhausted legs through seventy miles of running per week? Why strive to run a sub 5:00 mile when the world record and gold medals are more than a minute away? Why do it when there’s a perfectly good couch you could be sitting on, eating Honey Stinger waffles, and binge watching The Office. Why, out of all the other less-painful or tiring activities in the world, do you choose to run Miles of Trials? Do you do it for the glory? Well, I won’t be winning Boston or Berlin or running at a world championship anytime soon, so I think that can be counted out. Do you do it for the money? Well, if you’re talking about that pair of Heart and Sole socks I won for a second-place finish one time, then yea, it’s sort of for that. Answering this question though, is not quite as simple as it seems.

If I were to guess my Why, I would have to say that it stems from self-improvement and not being satisfied with my own mediocrity. Simply a desire to be better than before. Still, I don’t believe self-improvement can fully explain why I (or anyone else) do this whole running thing. It doesn’t truly explain the masochism involved with pushing yourself to your physical limits in workouts three times a week for fifty-two weeks out of the year. Somewhere along the way it takes more than motivation for self-improvement to push harder and run longer. At some point, a runner finds that his passion for the sport stems from a multitude of different factors. For me, I struggle fully figuring out what these factors are, and I believe I am better off because of that. I am better off letting my passion take over and drive me rather than trying to figure out what drives my passion. Passion, by nature, is typically irrational, and I am content with letting mine remain as such.

In The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus writes, “There is scarcely any passion without struggle.” That is most certainly true for the sport of long distance running. Our sport attracts those who all have their various “whys,” and the struggles provided by running distance ensure that only those who are truly passionate about the sport continue running. Those who have this passion, find themselves in good company on teams such as ours. Although we may never set any world records, win any gold medals, or we take over 3 years to break 5:00 for the mile, we can find comfort in knowing that we are not alone in our strivings to defeat the previous versions of ourselves.

Everyone has their Why—what fuels their passion for running. It’s all a matter of letting that passion just take over and guide you. Thankfully, having a great group of friends and teammates to push you makes the struggles involved in self-improvement a little easier to bear.