Like many other long distance runners in my situation, I constantly ask myself “Why Do I Run?“.
It certainly isn’t ‘fun‘. It makes you really sore and tired afterwards. The time leading up to a long run is filled with uncertainity, self-doubt, sometimes fear, and mostly all sorts of emotional and psychological ‘situations‘ running in my head. I even think it makes me stressed out for the few hours following a long slow distance (LSD) run.
The benefits are obviously there. Not the easiest by any means, but running has proven itself to be by far the quickest and the most effective way to lose weight, make your heart stronger, your skin a little healthier and you a little younger.
Still, I catch myself asking
Why then do I do it again and again and again?
And then just yesterday, I discovered this quote that US 100m World Record Smasher (June 1999) and sprinter Maurice Greene (from Kansas City) keeps in his Office as a framed Verse, and reads it everyday to inspire him.
It goes like this….
Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up and it knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter if you’re a lion or a gazelle, when the sun comes up, you better be running!
Lion Chasing A Gazelle (Photo Credit: joshclark.me )
Now if that doesn’t inspire you to keep running, I don’t know what else will.
What is your favorite running quote?
