A Visit From Your Spirit Runner

As runners, we tend to mark great running moments through the prism of time and distance. We may note our fastest 10k or marathon when we reflect back on our running careers. As we age, however, our prospects for setting PR’s fade. This shouldn’t mean, however, that great running moments are only in our past. We simply need to open our minds and define great running moments through a different prism. We need to seek out our spirit runner. While I’d love to set a PR in my next 10k, I’d much rather get in touch with my spirit runner.

If you haven’t experienced your spirit runner, it’s hard to define in words. You know it if you’ve experienced it. Some call it a “runner’s high”, a surge of chemicals naturally released into your system. But it’s more than that. When your spirit runner enters your body and soul, you are elevated to a four-way intersection of performance, physical ease, emotional well-being, and oneness with the world around you.

The beautiful thing about your spirit runner is that it is not restricted to a USATF-certified course on a Saturday morning or a scenic trail. With an open mind, your spirit runner can appear at any time, place, or age.

Imagine walking out your front door for a five-miler in your neighborhood one night after work. Your plan is a three mile tempo run with easy miles as bookends. This workout is a regular part of your routine. After a one mile warm-up you lengthen your stride and increase your leg turnover. You are fit and confident in your training, however, tonight you feel particularly good. In fact, you feel so good that you pick-up the pace. The faster you run, the better you feel. When will it stop? When will you tire? It feels as if you will never fatigue. As you forge ahead, your breathing is controlled, your form is perfect, and your muscles gently glide like properly lubricated pistons. The afore-mentioned chemicals have now entered your system and you feel no pain or discomfort despite running at breakneck pace. No longer a tempo run, you are having an out-of-body experience. As the pain-numbing chemicals flow through your body, positive thoughts flow through your mind. You are happy with your life and you realize that running is a major part of this happiness. For the moment, you are an athlete perfectly designed for running. You feel an earthly connection to other perfectly created living things around you that move with ease and grace. Eagles fly effortlessly, dolphins swim effortlessly, and you run effortlessly. This elevated plane of consciousness continues until you hit mile four. Then you shorten your stride, decrease your leg turnover, and begin your cool down.

This wasn’t just a successful tempo run. No, this was something much greater. You were touched by your spirit runner. You haven’t felt this way for months. You may not experience this feeling again for years. Regardless, this was a great running moment. No race course, no cheering crowds, and no stop watch to measure exactly how fast you ran. Yet, this was clearly one of your greatest running moments. As the years pass and mileage is recorded in your running log, moments like this will mark when you were at your best. This tempo run could have occurred at six, eight, or ten minutes per mile pace. The pace is irrelevant. What matters is the feeling that you achieved. As you enter your second, third, or fourth decade of running, your PRs may be in the rearview mirror. But remember that your spirit runner may join you on your next run if you open your mind to it.