Runner's High

When I was a new runner I heard about the runner's high and I didn't quite believe it. It's that feeling runners describe of getting out on the road and feeling like you could go forever, like running is effortless. It's when you get to the end of your run and you're running just as fast as at the beginning, and you don't want to stop. It's when wake up tired and decide to do just an easy few miles, and then before you know it you've done ten. It's a lot more than just feeling good on a run. And it took me years to realize that the runner's high is real, even though I'd been experiencing it, because I had assumed that because a runner said it felt like the run was effortless meant it really was effortless. This is not true. Running always takes effort. It's just that sometimes you are having so much fun and running so well that you don't even notice the effort.

The first and most important lesson of running, I think, is that you don't experience a runner's high every time you run. In fact, you don't experience a runner's high most times that you run. In fact, a true runner's high is really very rare, at least for me. Like once-every-few-months rare. It's not that I slog through pain and exertion for two months and then get that one marvelous run that keeps me going for the next two months - I enjoy myself almost every time I get out there, and on the rare occasion that I don't enjoy myself while I'm out running I at least know that it'll feel good to be finished. Running is mostly about small joys, about getting outside and exploring town on foot, pounding out frustrations, taking time to think about what I want to think about, breathing deeply, seeing the sun rise, smiling at other runners who pass me on the street. For all the little things, I can forget (or actually enjoy) the heart-pounding, the muscle-aches, the hills, the sweat.

And then, every once in awhile, I get a run like today's where the weather is perfect, my energy is high, and I just feel good. And then I recognize that I feel good, that I'm running strong, and that makes be feel better and run faster, and by the time I finally get home I feel as if life, not just running, could not get better than this. This is not what keeps me running - it's those little day-to-day joys that do that. But coming back from a run like today's makes me think that even without the day-to-day rewards, I would probably still keep running just to have an experience like this every couple months or so.