Why Running Is Awesome

WHY RUNNING IS AWESOME

A few months ago, okay, so quite a few months ago, I wrote a post all about my experiences with running. It was the first time I had really spoken about it, and as a first time runner, I wanted to reach out to other first time runners, or wannabe runners, and lend both a helping hand and motivational 'you go gurl'. The whole prospect of running can be rather intimidating at first. In theory it should be as easy and natural as breathing, because after all, running is essentially walking albeit with a rather large spring in your step. Yet there's just something about running that I still find to be rather elusive, and I'm still not too sure what it is. In a way, it's become something of an art form, with set principles and methods and all that malarkey. There's the running clothes and swanky trainers, the fluorescent strips to illuminate oneself wherever one goes, the compulsory music playing device and headphones, the set warm-up stretches, those acrobatic lunges and hefty squats, and a determined look that simultaneously says I mean business, r u jel m8 and why oh why am I doing this to myself when I could be sat watching Netflix and eating Nutella waffles. To even start running, it feels like there's a million and one things you have to get sorted first, and then there's the whole actually doing exercise part too, which is another matter entirely. A lot of people either don't even bother trying, give up fairly soon into their running experience, or want to start but are to afraid to, which is why I'm writing this very post right here, right now, because in my opinion, almost one and a half years since I first started running, I have come to realise that running might just be the best thing ever. And now I'm going to tell you why.

001. IT MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE A SUPERHUMAN

For me, running is my main form of regular exercise asides walking, hence the reason why I do it. Even now I still don't quite understand why I chose it to be my main form of exercise, seeing as I couldn't actually do it very well at the time. I also equated it with the massive inconvenience that was school PE lessons, and memories of me gasping for breath and glowing a luminous tomato red. Yet in spite of all that, I always thought that there was something so beautiful about running. The idea that you could go anywhere and everywhere, a la Forrest Gump style, just by moving your feet one in front of the other. The motion of the human body slicing through the air, and the almost animalistic way it can move with such speed, agility, power. The distances you can cover, the endurance your body can handle, the determination not to give up, that feeling like you're king of the world. You're a superhuman, a racing puma, a lighting bolt of dazzling electricity, invincible. There's nothing that you can't do. Nowhere that you can't go.  Now admittedly, when you're a highly amateur runner, the sight of you running (or more like you dragging your limbs across the floor), won't quite conjure up this kind of imagery in the minds of other people, but that doesn't even matter because in those first few minutes when you begin your run, you will feel like a hybrid superhuman-animal-warrior and if you're feeing that way, then that's all that matters. 

002. IT HELPS YOU TUNE IN WITH THE POSITIVE VOICE IN YOUR MIND

As someone who was, and sometimes still is, all too familiar with the negative voice in the back of their mind, and as mentioned in previous posts, is predisposed to not feeling good enough, I've found running to be something of a miracle cure. In almost every waking moment of our lives, we have the choice to be positive or negative, take the high road, take the low road, see life through an optimistic lens or on the converse, in a lens steeped with pessimism. Carry on, give up. Believe we can do it, believe we can't do it. Give it a go, don't try at all. We have the choice, always. When I started running, and the tough times came, just like they always do, and I was tired, sweaty, achy, when faced with the decision whether to stop or carry on, I would always tune into the negative voice. The one enforcing how tired and sweaty and achy and red I was, the one blaring out I can't do this, the one begging to me think about how nice it would be to just stop and go back home and eat cake already! When faced with the choice, I would chose the easy way out, as is often the case in life. But what good did that do me? Not a lot, if I'm being honest. It was good in the short term, not so good in the long term because guess what, I didn't get any better at running. Everything changed for me when I started making an effort to tune into that positive voice, the one urging me to carry on for just that little bit longer, keep putting one foot in front of the other, think of how amazing it would be to look back and think I did that, try and push myself further to see just what I was capable. Only then did I start to notice a positive difference, and realise that I was a lot more capable than I ever gave myself credit for. Plus the feeling of pride, amazement, satisfaction, when you follow that positive voice, try a little harder, carry on going, keep looking forward, and good things actually happen, is just incredible. It's so easy to ignore the positive voice in your mind, but running forces you to come face to face with it, as does it give you the perfect opportunity to start getting attuned to it, becoming familiar with it, paying attention to it, and soon the positivity starts to transfer across other aspects of your life too. You believe in yourself more. You persevere. You have a better outlook. And that's pretty awesome.

003. IT HELPS CLEAR YOUR MIND

Often when I decide to go for a run, it's because I'm in an indulgent state of overthinking, and part of me is convinced that if I go for a run, it will give me the perfect opportunity to untangle the web of thought and sort everything out. This doesn't happen. And that's because something even better is happening instead: my mind simply decides to switch itself, bar the positive stream of thought urging me to carry on, and to also notice the beauty in the world around me. It's amazing. During almost every other part of my life, I find it very difficult to obtain a peace of mind and turn off my incessant thoughts. When I go running, I don't even have to try. It just happens automatically. My mind takes a well deserved rest and I love it because it's such a gorgeous feeling of tranquillity and inner peace, sacrificing your complex human thoughts to instead focus on the simple instinctive act of moving from A to B. For the entire duration of my run, my daily life preoccupations are another world away and even if they try to pop back up, it's as though my mind puts up a CBA, please come back later sign and peace is once again resumed.

004. IT FORCES YOU TO NOT CARE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK
When I go running, as previously mentioned I turn a luminous red, I don't sweat at all and I heavy breathe like there's no tomorrow. I'm also wearing a sassy t-shirt that proudly proclaims 'I'm red, enough said'. So to put it simply, I basically look like a right state. If you were to pass me by whilst I'm running, it's likely you would suddenly start feeling extremely good about yourself, and you would be right to do so because I look rather hideous. And that's absolutely fine by me because over the last six months or so, running has helped me learn to stop caring what people think. When I started running, the thought of other people actually seeing me do it used to freak me out, and even now I'll admit that I try and go in the early morning or late at night, when there's typically less people about. Yet as I grew to enjoy running, and I began to get a bit better at it, I started to feel more confident. Accepting that you could probably blind people with your hideousness, and being okay with that, is actually rather liberating and amusing too. And I have to admit that if I come running down the road looking like a tomato with legs, combined with my 'I'm red enough said' tshirt, and I see someone smile or chuckle, I can't help but smile too. I'm happy to admit that I look awful and laugh about it, and that's because I'm totally cool with it now. When you stop making it your problem, it becomes other people's problem. Likewise if you've just smashed a personal victory, such as running without taking a stop when you normally would, going the extra mile, getting the hang of your breathing, why should you feel bad about yourself? Who cares what anyone else thinks? You're amazing, and don't let that suffer because you're too afraid of what other people might think.

005. IT HELPS YOU TO LOVE YOUR BODY & YOURSELF

Before I started running, I had a fairly decent and uninteresting relationship with my body. I generally liked the way I looked and I appreciated that my body was fairly healthy and could allow me to do most things, but that was basically the extent of it. I felt quite average, normal, typical, run of the mill. As for the way I felt about myself, again it was a fairly mediocre relationship too. Sometimes I really liked myself, sometimes it was an 'eh well it's not really going to get better than this', and sometimes I just didn't like myself at all. All that changed when I started running. When you start running, in order to get better at it, you need to both know your body, listen to your body and look after your body. Initially when I began, I didn't stretch properly, I didn't breathe right, I didn't run right, I didn't pace myself right, I didn't truly believe I could do it, and the end result was I didn't get very far, I gave up a lot and after a run I felt like death warmed up. Not ideal. So to turn things around, I started paying attention to my body more. I started picking up exercises and stretches I could do to prepare my body for a run. Through trial and error I learnt how to breath properly (nice, deep diaphragmatic breaths) and run properly. I learnt how to pace myself, going slower when I encountered challenging terrains and going faster when things were easier. I started believing in myself and coordinated that positive thinking with my body movement, using my positive thoughts to help counteract any fatigue or pain. If I quite literally got off on the wrong foot, and couldn't get in the zone, I cut my run short and tried again another day. If I found I was getting tired quickly, I'd shorten the route and take regular stops. If I felt like queen of the world, and my body was killing it, I'd push myself further, run a little bit longer than usual, see what I was capable of. And as I soon came to realise, my body was a lot more capable than I had originally gave it credit for. It amazed me what my humble old little body of mine could actually achieve if I put my mind to it, likewise I quickly came to cherish that new found relationship I found, where if you give your body the attention and love it deserves, it gives that love right back to you as best it can. I'd look in the mirror and actually like what I saw, not because I lost weight or became toned, but because my new found appreciation for my body meant I stopped focusing on the negative things about me, and started noticing all the positives instead. Now, I think that my body is the bomb. It may not be the fastest, the most powerful, the most agile, the most flexible, the most toned, the slimmest, but my god is it a babe when it comes to perseverance, not giving up and continually carrying me forwards. And that's all I could ever wish for.

006. IT GIVES YOU AN EXCUSE TO EAT LOTS OF NUTELLA WAFFLES

So this reason is pretty self explanatory. When you run, you give your body a nice old work out, and in the process you burn off some calories. I have no idea how many because I never weigh myself. All I do know, is that if I've been for a run, I've definitely burnt something, and if burning has occurred, that means there is definitely a space in my stomach that needs filling. If thou hath lost, then thou must gain once again. So thou doth gaineth. I reward myself with some beautiful food and enjoy every last bit of it. Then a few days later I run some of it off, walk some of it off, and the cycle commences again, and it leaves me feeling pretty happy. A lot of people, myself included, run to keep relatively fit and healthy, and to also have an excuse to indulge, and if that's your goal with running, then good on you. I personally think that's when you'll enjoy running the most and get the most out of it. The minute you start weighing yourself, counting calories, restricting yourself, getting annoyed at yourself for not being fast enough/ slim enough/ healthy enough/ strong enough, and counting your success according to your weight, the food you ate, the fat still on your body, the distance covered and the time taken to do so, that's when I personally think you're doing things wrong. To me, running is a way to keep on the right side of healthy, it's a positive lifestyle choice, it's a gateway to positive thinking, it's a celebration of how amazing your body is and the amazing things it can do, it's about learning how to persevere and carry on, it's about seeing what you're capable of, it's about feeling good about yourself and loving yourself, and most importantly, it's an excuse to eat nutella waffles and enjoy every last gorgeous, beautiful mouthful with absolutely no shame or regret. Preach.

007. IT'S FREE (almost)
Again, pretty self explanatory. In order to go for a run, you don't need to pay anyone any money, fill out paperwork, get a locker key to store your things away, walk past all these amazing superhuman, gladiator-like individuals, own a membership. You don't even need to own fancy running gear either, although a pair of light weight trainers is an absolute must in order to look after your feet and make you feel like you're walking on clouds too. All you need are your trainers, a pair of leggings or shorts, a sports bra if you're a girl, and a baggy top, and voilà, you're good to go. When I go running, it almost feels to me as if the world has suddenly become my playground, my own personal running track. Suddenly these streets aren't just streets are walk down every day to get to where I need to go, instead they're pieces of a puzzle that I can assemble in any way I like to form my own personal running route. It makes me see the world in a different way, as does it make me appreciate it more. When I'm running I feel like I can literally go anywhere and everywhere, so long as my legs will carry me, and I adore the exhilarating freedom that accompanies that. Granted when you're outside, you have to be brave enough to withstand the strange looks of other people, and not care what they think, but simultaneously why would you spend £15 a month to run on a machine that takes you absolutely nowhere, looking at a view comprised of windows, machines and other sweaty people, when you could go outside for free and literally run anywhere that you wanted to, taking in the beauty of the world as you go? You can literally get fit for free, and if that's not #winning then I don't really know what is.

008. IT SOMETIMES MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE THIS

A lot of the time when I run, I come back feeling tired and achy, but also very proud, happy and good about myself (probably something to do with nutella waffles) irrespective of how far I ran or how long I ran for. But sometimes, amazing things seem to happen when I run, and I come back home and the only way I can describe the experience is this (an entry in a notebook of mine): "This evening I went for a run, and it was one of those times you get every once in a while, when it all just feels so incredibly amazing. As soon as my feet hit the floor, I picked up the pace and Foster The People's début album 'Torches' began to play, and I felt like I was flying. It's like my mind disconnected from my body, and my soul disconnected from everything. I was there moving forwards, propelling myself to an ever changing destination, and yet I wasn't. It felt like my body didn't want anything more than to keep on moving. It took no effort on my part. It was all so easy. Whilst I kept going, it freed me to look up and notice the stars in the depths of the inky black sky. Listen to the dazzling array of sound embedded in the music. Be free. Feel invincible. All my worries and thoughts somewhere behind me, not quite able to catch up as I sped along the road. I felt like a lighting bolt. No obstacle could stand in my way. Everything was possible, nowhere and nothing off limits, so long as I kept putting one foot in front of the other. I could climb every hill, run against the gradient, overcome the obstacles. Head straight, feet hitting the ground, heart pumping, lungs powering me on, every breath making me stronger. I wasn't going incredibly fast, but the important thing was I never stopped. The magic I felt didn't fade, so long as I kept my eyes on what was ahead and kept on going. I don't know if it was the stretches I did, the food I ate, the clothes I wore, the music in my ears. I don't know why I felt the way I did. But I loved it. I felt alive with every ounce of my being. In those moments, the world was mine. I could do, be anything and everything. It was one of the best feelings in the world, AND THAT'S WHY I BLOODY LOVE RUNNING! FOR TIMES LIKE THIS!'

9 times out of 10, you will finish a run and feel either largely satisfied or want to go back out and try again, do it better. But 1 time out of 10, you will finish a run and feel something like how I did that time I wrote about above, and it will be one of the most amazing feelings you will ever know. And even though most times it isn't going to be something too special, and sometimes you'll want to give up, do it for that one time. Keep going till you get there. It will happen, and it will feel like something close to paradise when it does. Trust me.