The Paradox of the Distance Runner

Which isn't to suggest that it's really about trails as much as it is that there are a lot of different ways to approach it that might work better or worse for other people.

I've never had a marathon I didn't have some amount of misery in. Though I did have one half-marathon that was basically just pure awesomeness: I ran the atlanta half marathon, which I'd planned to race pretty hard, but got injured. So I flew down there, met up with my friend, and we decided to just run it as a training run. Heck - I went to the port-a-potty as the starting gun fired, since the lines were too long. Started in the back, spent the entire race passing people, and decided in the last 3 miles I felt good enough to go fast and dropped down to something close to race pace for them and enjoyed the hell out of it. Didn't come anywhere near a PR, of course, but it was a memorably fun run -- good company, nice scenery, good slow warmup, and no pressure at all on myself. And kinda good for my ego since we spent literally the entire time flying past people who looked not very happy to be there. :-)

My recollection is that during races I would reach a point about two-thirds of the way along, wonder what had got into me to sign up, and tell myself I wouldn't do it again. And then of course I would be back for another race.

However, when I was in condition a run of fifteen or twenty miles could be very enjoyable. These days, a run of five miles can be.

I've often have pure pleasure while running through nature if you count that. I've done a few long distance trail events over the years, and it seems rather good for my mental health.

I've only done the pure joy of running thing, the so called runners high, once or twice. That was while doing fast⁰ road¹ running before I discovered the joy of a slower long plod in the green stuff, and it literally feels like being a little drugged up. The physical joy of exercise usually comes from neuroactive chemicals that the brain kicks out as natural painkillers², when you finish these take a while to filter out of your system but no longer have effect of hard work to counteract, so you feel really good in that cool-down period. Sometimes though their levels end up a little higher than they need to be for your current efforts while still running, when that happens it feels like you are running on clouds and that you could keep going for days, if you notice that happening you can sometimes draw it out by careful management of your level of effort (but obviously your judgement in that regard is a bit off at the time so that is easier said than done).

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[0] well, fast-sh, I've never been an example of peak human fitness!

[1] or at least payment, or the cycle tracks that were a large part of my regular training runs

[2] a useful part of the flight/fight reaction when being hunted, which as persistence hunters we evolved to co-opt when on the other side of that great survival game

There are sports where pleasure can be easily experienced, coupled with other intense positive emotions. Rock climbing does it for me (it works with something in our monkey brain and it works very well), some more adrenaline sports get you there too.

But its perfectly fine to not even seek pleasure, that's one way to sustain efforts for long since health benefits especially for white collar workers are massive.

For Courtney Dauwalter are we talking "won" as in across all starters or across all women starters?

Winning against a mixed field would be beyond impressive!

I put the treadmill to maximum grade and walk.

When I walk, I can easily read a book or listen to an audiobook.

I am happy with the exercise without having to actually run. I can't remember the calories, but walking at 15% grade was equivalent to a pretty fast clip at 0%.

Do you like music? Uptempo music? I run with a playlist designed to match my cadence at the various stages of my run. I get my endorphin rush from the combination of the run and the music.