What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

If anything sets us apart it is a kind of sensitivity. We can hear a faint chord vibrating on old and brittle strings. It begins to resonate through us when we rise predawn for a morning run. The sound builds the longer we stay at it. On a long run through the mountains our attention becomes focused, in tune, automatic. Each footfall and each breat

So, what’s the difference between a good run and a bad run? The space between our ears. Our opinion about every single run is determined by the expectations we have placed on it. More than pace or any other metric, our attitude affects the way we view our experiences. It all comes down to losing the connection between our body and our mind.

You could carry your burdens lightly or with great effort. You could worry about tomorrow or not. You could imagine horrible fates or garland-filled tomorrows. None of it mattered as long as you moved, as long as you did something. Asking why was fine, but it wasn’t action. Nothing brought the rewards of moving, of running.

In running, as in climate action, the most sustainable pace is not all-out, all the time. That doesn’t mean you aren’t giving your best. Far from it. It just means you’re setting yourself up to give your best in the long run. Tina and Zoë used to believe that the “best” way to run was to go for it with every fiber of their being, to burn a hole in