I have loved to run for ten years.
I am not sure how this happened. I have never been a particularly fast runner and had no intention of pursuing the sport beyond high school cross country. Ten years later, running is an integral part of my life.
When I tell people I run, I do feel the need to clarify the kind of running I engage with. I give the spiel, “no not that kind of running”– not the self-sacrificing running fueled by pain and suffering.
And yet, I have not been able to clearly define how running can be different. Or how the running is actually secondary to the things running gives me access to.
This is my attempt at exploring this kind of running, and perhaps more importantly, the thing behind the running.
Haruki Murakami states, "writing honestly about running and writing honestly about [him]self are nearly the same thing."
I believe this is true. Running gives us a door. A portal. A threshold.
Every run presents an opening– an opportunity to move towards my self. Towards feeling. Towards experience. Towards the present moment, if it is done out of a certain posture.
INTUITIVE RUNNING
“Intuitive running” is a term coined by Karly Borden, founder of the Public Run Club. It is characterized by understanding our bodies as being cyclical, and views running as a form of self-advocacy and self-nurturance. It is rooted in the desire to “stay close to the feeling” (Borden), and fosters a greater sense of self-trust, and self-acceptance.
What does intuitive running look like?
I’ve never seen it before. I only know how it feels.
It feels liberating– chest-expanding, playful, and curious. It does not mean only running slow. It does not mean running aimlessly, or with a lack of ambition.
Rather, it means embodying a full range of possibilities– holding space for the present moment. Staying close to the feeling. Whatever the feeling may be.
I want to capture the feeling of intuitive running– to bottle it up and give it to you– something to hold onto.
Not any certain feeling (noun), but the feeling (verb) itself.
This is how I have found running to be a threshold– a way to access a more full range of body, mind, and spirit– through the feeling.
body / rest
through running, I find access to rest.
mind / release
through running, I find release.
heart / hope
through running, I find hope.