What Running Has Taught Me About Living

Yesterday, I decided to run up a mountain, which meant I would be climbing for about 1.5 miles. I used to live on the mountain, and used to run this hill a few times a week. Two years ago, I moved to the Valley and said “Good riddance!” to the hill. Then yesterday I wondered if I still had some hill in me. As the grade steepened, I thought, “No, I definitely don’t.” But as I talked myself into putting one foot in front of the other, I realized that running has taught me many lessons about life. I thought about those lessons for the rest of the climb, and I got to the top of the hill. Here they are:

You always have more in you. We all have a natural “I want to quit” point, and we generally reach this point long before we are truly tapped. I can’t tell you how many times the words “I can’t go on” have popped into my head, especially during my first marathon when my right knee stopped working properly, my head felt as if it was going to explode, and I was fighting back an urge to throw up. Yet, I really could go on, all the way to the finish line. Similarly, in life, there have been times when I wanted to give up, when I thought I didn’t have it in me to face whatever obstacle was in my path. I’ve since learned that humans are incredibly strong and resilient beings. If we dig down, we can usually get ourselves through most of the difficulties that, at first glance, seem impossible.

Rest is just as important as hard effort. Athletes know that their muscles get stronger and faster during rest and sleep. That’s why they train with a hard-easy-hard-easy approach. The same is true for mental creativity and toughness. Going hard every single day will eventually result in burnout. On the other hand, if you sprinkle in some easy days where you don’t expect a heck of a lot from yourself? You’ll get to your finish line a lot faster.

If you want to achieve a certain result, you need a training plan. When I decided to run my first marathon, 26.2 miles seemed impossible to traverse. But I followed a training plan, one that slowly increased my running distance from week to week. I went from a 6 mile run to a 7 mile run to an 8 mile run and so on.

I’ve used this concept to help myself achieve non-physical milestones, too. Rather than try to achieve everything at once, I’ve broken big goals down into smaller, more doable ones, teaching myself one skill at a time that eventually led to all of the skills I needed to achieve a desired result.

Think near, and you will go far. Whenever I’m doing a long run and I want to give up, I tell myself, “Okay, I only need to make it to that telephone pole.” Then I get to the pole and I say, “I think I can get to that tree.” I get to the tree and I say, “I think I can go as far as that house.” And then slowly from pole to tree to house, I eventually complete the entire run. I’ve used this technique to get myself through many different hardships. When I was overwhelmed as a new mother, for instance, I would tell myself, “I just need to get through the next 5 minutes.” Then I would do the next 5 and so on.

You can channel nerves into energy. Why do runners fidget and shake their legs out before a race? It has little to do with warming up and everything to do with nerves. They know that by moving around—stomping their feet, doing short wind sprints, stretching—they will be able to release some of that nervous energy. And once the gun goes off, they channel that nervous energy into every foot strike. It was only recently that I realized just how beneficial nerves are, though. I give better speeches when I’m a tad bit nervous. I present myself better when I’m nervous. I can even write faster when I’m nervous. And if the nerves get too intense (say my voice starts to quiver), I do what I did at the start line of races. I move around.

Coasting hurts more than climbing. Most people fear uphill running more than the down hills, but it’s the down hills that really mess up a runner’s body. Each downhill foot strike channels more shock up the legs than running on flat surfaces or uphill. Worse, you usually don’t feel it until the next day—when you try to get out of bed, but can’t. I’ve found that life is much the same. As I’m building toward a goal and am expecting the journey to be uphill? I’m determined and focused. When life presents a series of rapid gifts that make the journey seem deceptively easy? I lose focus. And then, as soon as the journey gets hard again, I crash in the form of a crying fit and end up needing to take a step back to regroup.

Smarts and determination can get you nearly as far as talent—and sometimes even farther. I’ve never been a fast runner. My fastest mile was a 5:58. Even in the 80s, that was mediocre at best. (Note: the fastest girls back then were running sub 5). Still, I was able to beat many girls who were much faster than I was, simply because of how I ran each race. I would pace off their right shoulder for the first three laps, making them waste a lot of mental energy. Then I would start sprinting at the start of the final lap—long before most people start to kick. The tactic made many runners mistakenly think, “Wow, she’s got way more left that I do” and mentally give up. This, too, translates to life. Sure, there are people who might be better funded or better connected than you. But through hard work and determination, you can get just as far as they can—if not farther.

Embarrassment is not a reason to give up. I used to pee my pants whenever I kicked at the end of a race. The first time it happened, I was mortified. I almost stopped running. I thought all the kids in school were going to start teasing me. That’s not what happened though. Instead, the other girls on the track team rallied behind me. Some would cheer wildly for me, right at the point in the race when the pants peeing usually happened—helping me to ignore it and keep going. And another girl—who also peed her pants when she ran—would wait at the finish with a pair of sweats, so I could put them on and cover up my wet spot. I did the same for her. I’ve since learned that most of the so-called embarrassing things that we hide from others are actually quite endearing. If we have the courage to get over our embarrassment and talk about these things, we’ll usually find people who are quite supportive and who have gone through the same thing.

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