Running Back

Running Back.

If I think back, running was the first sport that I discovered I was good at. Of course there were others that I would preferred to have been better at, but running was the one that stuck. Like most children who find that they are better at longer races, I discovered it by accident. Usually it is that you just can't keep up with the good sprinters. You aren't the fat kid. You run around a lot. You ride your bike and are active...yet frustratingly you just can't get near the top 3 places in a sprint race and so are never considered a good runner. You are just a good all-rounder. A second-stringer.

A few years later, when the longer races get added to the programme, the coach does what they always have and put the good runners in the important 'fast' races. The slower spare kids get the 800m and 1500m races. The rest get shunted over to the field events. This always felt unfair and if I wanted to continue to be part of the athletics team I had to endure the tough long races. It seemed like this to me because after each race I could not see straight and my lungs felt as though they had been scoured with a wire brush. Never mind my lactic-filled rubber legs. The sprinters after their race looked as fresh as daisies. Daisies receiving adulation too. Not only did they have less to run but they also suffered less. So it did feel like a punishment of sorts for me.

 It was in my personal purgatory of long races that I discovered, that even though it was never easy and my lungs and legs always burned, most of the other kids started falling away. You realise that you can keep going that bit longer, you can outlast the other runners. Even though your legs feel like molten lead, your heart soars and you somehow feel lighter. That realisation in what you can now do becomes a belief and then an identity.

 Often the running path is abandoned. I left it for the lure of mainstream high school sports. Some never find their way back to running. I found my way back after 20 years. I was always active, playing rugby and later spent an exorbitant few years trying to call myself a triathlete. It was only when we moved to Greece that running only ever returned to my life. I have never been spiritual about running, never felt that you can find yourself in running. Yet I do know that it can help you find parts of yourself. For me it fills a need to challenge and bring out the best in myself. It makes me want to change aspects of life. Running is one of those purely for ‘every action there is a reaction’ type of sports. Your progress isn't influenced by equipment the way a set of deep section aero wheels or a well made racing canoe can affect performance. It is just you.

 Perhaps that is the simplicity that appeals to me. I know I will never be as good as runner as I want to be. But I am back on the path and glad to be on it.