So what life lessons do we learn from running? This is the question asked today by the Runner's Lounge - a question that I haven't really asked myself as I have logged the miles this year. I've been running after the fastest pace, or the highest monthly mileage, or even the elusive dream of qualifying for Boston. I haven't been living the running. I've almost forgotten that the runs I do are my life.
Perhaps this is the greatest life lesson I can take from my running. Life isn't about the goal, or the finish line, or the next size smaller pair of jeans. Life is what happens on the road, during those slow miles, up the big hills, through the dark in the forests of Central Oregon. Life is in the van with your teammates, on the bridges with your running partners, sitting with you as you enjoy a hard-earned cup of coffee Sunday morning and chat about the next big race or home improvement projects waiting your return. Life is at every stoplight you wait through, in every rabbit that hits you in the foot while you run down the trail, every cold soak in the tub as you recover from too many miles in the heat. Life is the osprey circling the field at the top of the hill, the sting of the snow falling through the trees on a late day in March, the nagging pain in my hamstring that reminds me of every step I take.
It is only when I stop to realize that this running that I do is my life, not just an ends to it, that I can really learn the one lesson from life I need to learn. This is it. Life happens in all of these moments. I have had fantastic experiences out there on the road this year, even if they haven't all been pretty. And whether I'm running, or stretching, or dreaming of the next race, I'm living the life I have always wanted. I am a runner. And sometimes it just takes answering the question to realize it.
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