Imagine a cement paved trail, winding into the distance. A cool, moist breeze strikes your cheeks and your numb fingers. All you hear is the dripping of the dew hitting the trail as it falls from the leaves up above and the crunch of the leaves made at every stride you take further down the path. Running can be beautiful, other-worldly even. But, to explore this new dimension, you must win a battle, a battle between you and yourself. Yes, you can train your body to run faster, run longer, but at the end of the day, it’s the mind that dictates all of your actions and without training your mind, failure is inevitable. As the world renowned marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge said, “Only the disciplined ones are free in life. If you aren’t disciplined, you are a slave to your moods. You are a slave to your passions. That’s a fact.”

And with that, thank you for listening to my TedTalk. On a serious note though, the way I look at running is a series of victories and defeats. Some runs you feel great, some runs you feel terrible, and when those bad days are on race days, that’s when it really hurts. Now for a little story time, an experience of what I think is my best run I’ve ever completed…

Our team arrived at the trail late in the afternoon, the cool October breeze enveloping our extremeties as we entered the trail. We promptly began our warm-ups and started the long run. The run was already faster than normal; the varsity group already starting to push the pace in the front, stringing out the group. There was a nice, cool moisture in the air and the trail was still wet from the rain earlier that morning. “Immaculate vibes” we call it: the only sounds to hear are the leaves crunching under your feet and the music emanating from the speaker, getting fainter and fainter as you get more immersed in the world around you.

I ran with the team for four and a half miles and turn around aiming to complete nine miles in total. I’m the only one who turned around at the four and a half mark making this one of the few solo-long runs I have done. This is where the fun began. I expected my pace to drop as I was no longer with the pack, however, my legs just kept moving, cogs in an unstoppable machine, axles in a car, ants constructing their nest, unstoppable and unwavering. My pace began to decrease and I finished the run at nine miles going at six minutes and forty seconds per mile, one mile further and forty seconds per mile faster than the long run I did the previous week at the same trail.

After writing this blog entry, I have observed a dichotomy, no, a relationship in the nature of running: the intensity of pushing yourself to the extreme is kept in balance with the harmony you find with the world around you. I give running four stars.