Being a runner is many things to me. As soon as I slip on my trusty shoes, my mind is already racing with possibilities. Where will my route take me today– do I opt for a tour of downtown, head out into the woods, or go exploring that new trail I glimpsed last time? Is today’s pace destined to be leisurely or will I challenge myself to clip along more briskly? How do I temper my outing with any aches, pains, or low levels of energy that I may have? Where in the hell is the spare key to lock the door? While I evaluate all these things and countless more in the seconds between deciding to run and my feet skimming the ground, it all quickly dissipates: I enter another world the moment the house door closes and and locks.

A lot of people think runners are crazy. Who in their right mind would willingly run in 95 degree heat, sub-zero temps, bruising rainstorms, week after week after week… for years… and enjoy it? Suffer bruise, blisters, perhaps shin splints or stress fractures, and take all that with a smile? Runners age like everyone else too, as I’m beginning to glimpse (I’m by no means even middle aged yet!), and dealing with swollen ankles and knees from just a short two miler and the decreased spring in my step is a reminder that the body’s abilities slowly inch lower… and on top of all that, running hurts! It doesn’t feel good to have sore muscles, a sideache, and be out of breath! Where’s that couch and the chips, that sounds way better.

I actually love potato chips, like… a lot, so I’m not trying to play the couch potato stereotype here. Laying idle on the couch in front of the tv and with chips is one of my favorite ways to relax.

But all the same, pains and injuries aside, and keeping the delicious beckoning of potato chips at arm’s length, we runners continue to run. Any runner who dedicates his/her time to the pursuit finds a reason to; those millions of reasons share a few common threads. Keeping The Blerch in line, the desire to be fit, the “runner’s high”, and just the love of being outdoors with all the feelings we get while running… consider the following by Roger Bannister:

“No longer conscious of my movement, I discovered a new unity with nature. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt existed.”

These words were uttered shortly after his famous race on May 6th, 1954– he had just completed the impossible: clocking in a mile at 3:59.4, the first mile ran in under four minutes in recorded history. Brief nerd rant: seriously, this day changed everything. Before, everyone thought that four minutes was a wall that was unbreakable. It was preposterous to even dare imagining beyond it, and it seemed like a law of nature. You know, along the lines of throw something in the air/it falls down; birds fly/people don’t; cats meow/dogs bark; it’s impossible to run a mile under four minutes. But once it was done— how amazing it was, and it shattered everyone’s preconceptions. Everything about running changed, for now everyone wanted to see how much lower it could go. A few weeks later, an Australian broke Bannister’s record, and a few weeks more, those two competed head-to-head– and Bannister broke it again, with both running under 4 minutes in the same race. The record was broken dozens of times in the years leading up to the next Olympics, and even though Bannister didn’t become a famous Olympian, he did start a fire in competitive running. Running without limits, and tapping into power once thought to be beyond human grasp… it was all there, all along. Bannister, while a tremendous athlete, wasn’t neccesarily the best candidate for being the first– he was an amateur (spent most of his time working toward his degree in medicine) and smoked twenty cigarettes a day. Regardless, someone just had to do it first… then there was no limit, no barrier, and running ignited.

Now, I’m not saying I’m going to be the next Roger Bannister in running; my best time trials in practice were in the 4:20’s at the height of my training and fitness on a university track team (I was one of the slowest members on the team), and I’d be hard-pressed to run under 5:00 today. No, sub-four is out for me, as is breaking the current record of 3:43.13–set in 1999, one might think that it is the new barrier.

But I can still hold on to Bannister’s sentiment, his “unity with nature”– that is what I long for. Every time that I do get that feeling though, that feeling of clarity and of being unstoppable– that is my own breakthrough. That’s my own record, and it feels like it every single time it happens. I have a friend who is doing a “year of 28” (doing 28 new things, as she is 28 years old), and if she felt that breakthrough 28 times, each one would qualify as part of the 28– it really is like that.

Every time I go running, I’m searching for that exhilaration and sense of strength. It’s dark out, and far too late today, but tomorrow after work, when I lace up my shoes, I’ll be looking run another sub four-minute mile.