10 things to run for

In 2008 I started running. Back then, I could not keep up for more than ten minutes. Furthermore, every time I had tried to start running before failed. I was bored by what I then considered a monotonous sport. Since my school days, I had always preferred team sports (and still do).

Unfortunately, as soon as you hit the “working world” team sports die fast. Most of my friends had moved away from the courts and the frantic pace of life does not make it easy to play anything regularly. Volleyball went away because two teams are required add in the court, ball and net and it is way too much. Basketball also ended because of its "high" requirement of people, ball and court. I explored squash as it only requires two people and provides an exhausting workout. However, finding an available court, a partner and the commute eroded a vibrant start and left me without much. And then came the frequent flyer miles…

I started traveling for work (like Executive Platinum level travel but that is another story altogether) which made it even more complicated as now I wanted to play something but had to do it everywhere I went. I had to accept that I needed some sort of workout I could practice by myself and with minimum equipment. Running seemed like one of the only choices left.

I searched and searched the Internet until I found information on how to start running. A friend’s wife has run marathons and she confirmed what I had read on many articles: The key is to start slow. (https://zenhabits.net/how-to-go-from-sedentary-to-running-in-five-steps/)

That is a long story of explaining how I started. I became an inveterate runner and after more than 8000Km I learned these things:

1. Starting to run is easy, the difficult part is to keep running. Creating the habit is the real challenge because going out for a run on any given day is relatively easy. The hard part is committing to go out regularly until the habit is the one waking you up and getting you out.

2. The strength needed to run is not mainly physical, it is mental. Your body can do more, but the mind will always tell you to stop. I guess that's your sense of preservation keeping you comfortable. However, in the end you discover that pain and fatigue are temporary, but the feeling of having given up lasts much longer. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNL_DAI19_I)

3. The good runner is not the one who doesn't get tired but the one who keeps running in spite of it. Each step is a challenge to your fears, your insecurities, your doubts. Each step takes you away from where you were when you started running, literally and figuratively.

4. You should not make decisions while going uphill. In difficult situations, any excuse is good for giving up.

5. In the races, only a handful of people run to win. The vast majority runs against themselves.

6. In races, as in life, you will meet strangers who play a very important role: the guy that hands the water, the bystanders that cheer you up and even those who make fun of you (yes, I had a fair share of those); they all pass and you must keep moving forward with or without their help. Thank those who help and move on with those who do not.

7. If you are in a race and you fall; your shoe laces come off or you just stop to catch your breath and think you cannot go on, time will not stop. The faster you resume, the less time you lose.

8. Not everyone gets a medal in races. Only the ones who had the courage to finish the race get it.

9. If you can't have a normal conversation while running, you are going too fast. This was the phrase that forced me to think differently and, ultimately, incited my first step.

10. Don't judge what you don't know. Those crazy people who run at dawn or at night; those who wear shorts or long pants; those who take their time every kilometer and measure their heart rate every second; those who hear music or prefer the deafening noise of their mind in silence; All of them are people like you, that one day stopped walking and started running!

Today, I do not know if running changed my life or if I changed my life to run. Frankly speaking, it does not matter! I run almost every day. Every run is I fight not to give up, not to stop.

Stopping is easy and, as I usually go alone, no one will notice and it is in that solitude where a runner can learn the additional lesson: life does not set your limits, only you can do that.