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Strange...I do 6-8 mile runs 3 times a week, so I'm by no means a high-mileage runner. I find that I get a high around on around 1/4 of my runs, usually around the 4-5 mile mark.

It starts out with a cool rush of euphoria felt in the head and behind the eyes, which quickly spreads to the extremities and blankets any perpetual pain/discomfort, replacing it with a weightlessness, like every tendon and muscle in your body has been renewed. It's a pure, cool, iron-like high that allows me to cut 30-60 seconds off the next 1-2 miles once it kicks in.

I don't think it's a distance thing - it's more of a pushing yourself to the point where your brain feels the need to intervene. I expect that if I had a disciplined training schedule and ran long distances regularly, my brain would get used to the idea of running and stop getting me high.

I also lift weights 3 times a week, but I never experience a high while deadlifting, bench pressing, running sleds, etc. I'm fairly certain it has to be biking/running where you have no rest in between sets in order for your brain to flip out and turn on whatever chemical switch it is that produces the effect.

I have never experienced anything like this from exercise. Neither from the pain of a 5K, nor the discomfort of a marathon, nor the intensity of a crossfit workout. I'm a little jealous!

Yeah it's a pretty amazing feeling. Makes you feel glad to be alive, like you can conquer the world. Although, to be honest, I wouldn't mind trading the occasional high for the ability to run 3000 miles in a year - that's some serious stamina.

I've seen others commenting that they think runner's high is akin to a state of flow - it's not. I flow occasionally when I play tennis and write, and it's a completely different feeling - one of non-feeling, simply being and doing which allows me to lose my ego for a short while. I'm acutely aware of myself, my body, and my senses when I feel the runner's high.

+1. I could have written that exactly. I'm on track for 3,000 miles this year, ran 2,200+ last year. Have been doing 80+ miles/week recently with upcoming marathon. Ran a 50 mile ultra back in July. I've never had any "runner's high". It's not something that any of my running friends ever talk about; it's something non-runners talk about. Closest I get is also "feeling in a groove", which for me is mostly a feeling of ease I get when running a moderately fast even pace on flat route with no interruptions (like on a bike path). But it would be really stretching it to call that feeling a runner's high. There can also be a nice feeling _after_ certain runs, when they're over. This is also not a runner's high, just a pleasant feeling of being somewhat drained and relaxed, similar to the way you might feel after a massage, or after some non-running workouts. The whole "running high" terminology is geared towards making people think there's some kind of mystical thing. People like to believe things like that, but no.

Just to add some anecdata as a pile, I run about 1200 miles a year (half pavement, one third trail, the rest track). I regularly get a sort of runner's high after covering 5+ miles at a hard (7 min) pace, or 10+ miles at a moderate (8-9 min) pace. The intensity varies, but it usually sets in after this considerable distance and lasts for 2-4 hours afterwards.

I dont think you could have explained that any better. I usually hit around 1200-1300 miles per year and the closest I have ever come to a "runners high" is what you explained towards the end of your comment.

I'm in violent agreement with you. I'm running Richmond later this year. Which marathon are you runnning? (And good luck!)

I only started running regularly a year back, and I certainly feel something like a long-drawn low-ebbing pleasant kinda 'high' after a run. I also have double the energy now-a-days and am twice as productive since I started running. Concentration has improved along with temperament.

I am in my mid-thirties though and I can't recollect having run more than a mile before in my life. Maybe I will get used to this high and stop feeling the difference. Maybe I am feeling the kick because it is novel to me. But yes, it is nothing like the high you get from smoking marijuana :)

I used to be a long distance bicyclist. I got my time in but nowhere near as much as you, but nobody there really experienced the high either.

What I actually experienced felt more like what we now call Flow, which is a pretty good experience by itself. Programmers seek it out almost habitually, like an addiction. I've also experienced the same thing once doing restorative Yoga (the teacher was experimenting at the end of a quarter, but I moved across town after), and maybe while doing meditation but it felt different.

I'm really curious if this is the high people mean, and those who rave about it just have a really hard time entering a flow state. If that's so then I pity them.

Thanksgiving before last this really gelled for me. I had potatoes cooling on the stove and the dog was begging for a walk so I went out with him at like 10:15 am. Runners. Everywhere runners. Then it hit me like a brick. They were all out meditating, trying to mentally prepare for the onslaught of relatives and poorly behaved nieces and nephews that were about to descend on them.

In the 10+ years I've been running, I'd guess I've felt a "high" maybe 3 times? The first one was actually my first year running - a brisk 5-miler in the early Fall in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Another during the second 800 of my first fairly competitive mile (dropped 12 seconds off my PR). And the third during a late Fall run in Lexington, VA (another 5-miler). In each instance I felt this impenetrable happiness, lightness, and ease. My form, breathing, even the air-circulation allowed by my clothing, were all perfect. I remember not wanting to acknowledge what was happening for fear of it disappearing as soon as I "looked" at it. Whole-body tingles, no soreness afterwards.

I think, in each case there were a couple of prevailing influences to the sensation:

1.) Feeling alone. Even during my mile, surrounded by 10 other racers, I felt pleasantly alone. Everything was quiet, non-distracting, sublime even.

2.) I was also on the verge of a major breakthrough in my training. My first year running, my 5K went from 22:09 to 17:21, and that first high was probably two weeks before that new PR. Same for the run in Lexington. Luckily it came in the MIDDLE of my mile, because I'd run the exact same time the past 4 races in a row.

3.) The weather. In each case, the weather was extremely mild - cool, brisk, gentle breeze, but no wind.

I'm probably over-analyzing it. Also TONS of nostalgia. But still, I want to make that feeling a more regular part of my life as time ticks on :)

EDIT: There's a fourth.

4.) Running was joyful. Not something I was doing to rack up mileage, or beat a competitor, or "push myself to the edge." Yeah, those things happened as a consequence of training, but they weren't the goal. The goal was to enjoy going fast. And yeah, I got high from it. It's when the focus became about those other things that the best I could do was get in a groove.

I'm a beginning runner, so what you said piques my curiosity, because a question that's been on my mind is whether a slow runner can ever get fast. I remember seeing Malcolm Gladwell (he happens also to be an amateur runner who can do a 4:54 mile) quoting someone saying "I’ve never seen a boy who was slow become fast", then express his agreement sprinting is indeed an exception to the 10,000-hour rule. [1] (To be clear, he is talking about, sprinting, but I think he would agree the logic extends to running.) You mentioned your 5K went from 22:09 to 17:21 your first year running. Were you simply a good runner to begin with? My personal experience is that I'm also in my first year of running, and my 5K PR is 26:50, so I'm wondering whether I can ever get it down to 22:09.

[1] http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/complexity-and-...

Yes, training will make you faster. My first marathon was a 4:22. I've since run a 3:12. I'm training for a 3:05 this fall, and hoping to run sub-3 next year. I'm 43. But we all have our limits. Generally, more running makes you faster... but it also increases the likelihood of injury. Some people can run insane amounts w/o getting injured [1]. Some people have natural ability to run fast w/hardly any training [2]. But even for them, training makes them faster.

The trick is to train enough (enough miles and the right kinds) to meet your goals. And figure out how to do so w/o getting injured. (Hint: go see a PT, have them evaluate you for imbalances and weaknesses. Do the exercises they prescribe. Then build your mileage, slowly and methodically. And you'll get there. Running well takes years for most people. Don't rush it.)

[1] http://www.bunnhill.com/BobHodge/Rodgers/TrainingLogs/br75tr...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Way

I have to generally echo this sentiment. I'm at about 1,900 miles for the year and will end up with about 2,500 by New Year's (50 miles per week avg for the year). Most of the time my runs are enjoyable, except maybe the day after a hard workout. Sometimes I'll hit a stride and end up going much faster than intended and the miles click by and I'm amazed at my pace and what I've done by the end.

The closest I come to "runners high" is usually on those days where it's been a bit hot for long periods and then a cool front blows in. I'm practically giddy for the whole run and feel amazing. And I run races from 5k to 100 miles. I really, really enjoy racing, but I think it's the competitive aspect of it and not from some runners high.

I'm barely a noob (did run/jog 15 miles once), but I love running and when I reach groove, it's a bit more than groove. I feel a strong uplift. Not a high, but suddenly pain and even effort just vanish from my mind and I just 'fly' contemplating the world. It's a very happy sensation. Unfortunately it's also a zen exercise because it's usually when you become aware that you're 'flying' that you start to drift away from it. Maybe a relation between not running for the sake of it, but running while thinking of something else.

You probably have a high tolerance to the chemical concoction, so you get some pain-killing effects but not enough for a full-on high. I'm guessing the tolerance is both genetic and induced from the high amount of training you do.