Long-distance running was not my first love – that was swimming. Running has became a fundamental activity for me since 2007. I ran many races and half-marathons all over Europe and two full marathons – in Rome and Paris.
One of my favourite novelists, Naruki Murakami, said in his book “What I talk about when I talk about running” that the motivation for running is to run against time, to improve yourself, to be better than yesterday. Maybe that was true for him and for many other long-distance runners but for me running was always about freedom and belonging.
Nothing compares to a long run along the beach. Breathe in, breathe out, strong core and leg muscles and the wind in your face. The world is your oyster and the sky is your limit. You can conquer the world.
On the other side of the coin, when you run in a race you join a global community of the same natured people. No need to speak or explain, you know you are all a family. You look at their strides, their equipment, their nervousness, their smiles, pain and struggle and you know and feel good. You will finish the race together, you will reach the finish line with some of them.
Suddenly, 3 years ago I stopped running. I do not know why. It just happened. Naruki called it runner’s blues. I moved to yoga and even though I liked it I never experienced the euphoria of the wind in your hair. Life continued.
Then one day during the yoga session the thought appeared from nowhere – time to get back to running. It appeared and disappeared but kept manifesting itself in the old photos on FB, finding running books and magazines in the attic and using stretching techniques I knew from the running days. It persisted until one morning I knew that the next day I would run. God, that was one of the great moments in my life – the joy, the feeling of coming home, of sensing there is something more to conquer, all that was there.
The next day the sore muscles reminded me of life with limits but here I was – back in the running business. And this time I agreed with Naruki, “What is going to be much more meaningful to me now is how much I can enjoy myself. I will enjoy and value things that cannot be expressed in numbers”.
2 Comments
Enjoy the freedom that is running Nina 🏃♀️
Винаги съм предпочитала бяганията на къси разстояния,но четейки поста ми се прииска да съм на финала след малко повече от 42 км бягане .