Runner's High

by Abigail Tucker 

Insights from my daughter, a former high school runner and now a runner for sanity in college!

 I have always loved running...it is something you could do by yourself, and under your own power.  You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.

I run because it doesn't matter whether I come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last.  I can say "I have finished."  And there is a lot of satisfaction in that.

I run because, not because I think it is doing me good, but because I enjoy it and can't help myself...The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving, for freedom.  I know you have to wonder at times what you're doing out there.  I don't choose to run for the time that goes by while it's happening:  it's all about the after effect.

Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started.  It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.  The biggest challenge a runner faces is not their physical capabilities, but their mental ones.  When you hit that wall out there, there's only one thing that's going to keep you from pushing forward: your mind.  As a runner, if you turn your mind off and leave it to your legs, you'll reach a runner's high -- the experience where your whole body goes numb and it's nothing but your legs and the concrete.  The motion in your legs becomes effortless.  You stop hearing your breath and everything becomes silent and your feet feel weightless.  Instead of feeling like your inner body temperature is going to explode, it almost feels like ice is running through your veins.  Everything around you becomes white.  It is the closest thing I've come to feeling like the only person or thing left in the world.  And it doesn't seem scary.  It is empowering and defying.  It's the moment where I remember why I choose to get out of bed before the grass is defrosted.  It's the moment where I remember where my confidence comes from.  It's the moment I remember why I was blessed with a body from Heavenly Father.