The Best Part of Any Run

I assert that the best part of every run is when you stop.

...

Wait, what?

My favorite places to run (and I think this idea is shared with a quite a few other people) are quiet places away from traffic and lots of people. Runners are a quaint bunch, because we're always searching for 'that spot' that we can go to in search of something, well, peaceful. One of the more obvious things about running is that it makes noise. There really is no way to avoid making sounds when your arms are pumping, you're breathing harder, and your feet are striking the ground with a decent amount of force. Around us we have vehicles driving past, buildings omitting noise, farm machinery that you can hear from afar in rural areas, iPods in our ears, and other people running with us making noise (sometimes). In fact, I can only recall a handful of times in my life when I have been running and there wasn't noise polluting the air.

The very first time I can recall was when I was running west of my hometown with a guy named Eric. We were running rural gravels roads in a 8-mile square-shaped loop, but we veered off about halfway through and started running on the train tracks. See, all of the roads in the Red River Valley are oriented north-south and east-west, and this railroad cut straight through, coming from the southwest and headed northeast towards the town's grain elevator. Yes, that means we were running ON the railroad tracks, not on some road next to it. As sketchy as that already seems, we entered into an area where the tracks crossed on a bridge over the Sheyenne River. The Sheyenne River is not large by any means and the space occupied by trees on each side of it was about 20 yards in length, and then it was back to wide-open farmland. As we were crossing this bridge and well aware of the dangers of stopping, we slowed to a halt and enjoyed this little hidden haven. Never would I have expected this incredibly quiet and peaceful area out of sight from the road not 1/8 of a mile away. After running on a gravel road for awhile (a loud surface with all of the shifting rocks and dirt), it was so calm and so quiet that we couldn't NOT enjoy every second of it. So there we were: two guys standing on railroad tracks, covered by trees and out of sight from the public, and unable to hear human noises, and it was amazing- in fact, it was so inspiring that a few more times before I graduated high school I made a point to run that route again just to enjoy it. When we had had our fill of peace and tranquility, we continued down the tracks and headed back into the town, not in the least exhausted from stopping our pace, but rather invigorated from the sights.

The amount of possibilities for a situation like this are endless: stopping to appreciate a sunset, realizing how quiet everything has become around you, seeing a view that needs to be appreciated for more than a few seconds. The one thing they all have in common is stopping the run and enjoying. Now this seems to fly directly in the face of what we are always told as runners: don't stop during an easy run- it'll waste some of the gains for your body. Truth be told, I have a fellow runner who has explained to me that every time you stop for more than a minute you have to count the rest of the run as a second run (this means that when we run through the traffic-lights part of town, I end up doing 10-12 runs in that day, pretty impressive huh?). We are told that for our body physically, stopping is a no-go on easy runs, barring an emergency of course.

What about mentally?

Everybody needs to be mentally fed at some point during a day, week, month, etc, and running can be a mentally-taxing activity. Taking a moment during a particularly peaceful part of a run and just simply stopping and breathing and living can be so relaxing and therapeutic that I almost wonder why someone wouldn't do it. That is, until I remember what most runners have in today: iPods and music.* Having music or distractions in your ears when you run makes it really difficult to appreciate what's going on around you- the sounds, the sights, the weather, the wind, the people, etc, and let's be honest- who would take out their headphones and stop during a run? It's SOOO much easier to stop, but ruining that song is no fun. Now I can't speak for how people 'back in the day' used to do their runs without any of that assistance, but I can imagine that being able to stop at some point of the run and get a mental reminder why running is so awesome is timeless.

That's an interesting paradox isn't it? Stopping to appreciate running more. I do it all the time and I'm going to keep doing it all the time. Any negative physical effects that results can only be counterbalanced by the amazing mental and emotional effects of that kind of peace. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, try it sometime. If you're running on some trail where it's quiet, take a couple moments to stop and listen to the sounds around you. Listen to your heart beating. Watch the heat come off of your body. Look at the scenery around. Listen to the quiet. It's truly magical, and I would recommend it to anybody.


*Full disclosure: sometimes I run with an iPod in the summer when it's hot and I'm worried about needing a little extra boost to help me complete my run. I will also do this sometimes when my legs feel really junky and I need a get-me-up when running by myself. So I'm not putting negative pressure on iPod users, I'm just hoping that we can agree that it lessens our chance of appreciating a truly beautiful situation.