Embrace the Pain

I just reread the book Ultra Marathon Man by Dean Karnazes. When my some of my family (who do not run) asked me who he was and I began explaining about a man who could run 200 miles at one time, I got many blank stares. They of course thought he was crazy and why in the world would I want to read a book written by a crazy person. But some people think it is crazy to run just 13 miles, or even 5 miles at one time. So, in my book, "crazy" is all relative.

Anyway, there is one part of the book where Dean talks about pain and how most people respond to pain. I don't remember the exact quote but the idea was basically, why have we as a culture decided that the only happiness we can find in life is from a comfortable existence? Why don't we embrace pain as being able to produce good and happiness as well? We seek comfort and avoid pain at all costs these days. Dean advocates embracing the pain. He thinks if it doesn't hurt then we must be doing something wrong. Crazy, right?

But as someone who is not too far away from the memories of childbirth this concept makes perfect sense to me. Giving birth to my son was by far the most painful and exhausting thing I have ever experienced...ever. But, it produced a little boy who has made the lives of my husband and I so much better. He has made us so happy. In short, much pain produced much happiness.

So I am applying this concept to my running. Up until recently my philosophy has been to get through whatever distance I am running without having to endure too much pain. When I ran my first half marathon last year, and was still really scared of the distance, I did everything I could to avoid pain. That meant going slow and when I sensed the pain coming on big towards the end, walking. I am not going to do that this time. Doing that meant going slow when I am capable of going faster. It meant finishing in a time that was entirely too safe.

Recently on my training runs I have realized something. Because I was avoiding the pain, I never thought speed was something that could be mine as a runner. But now I am realizing that if I am willing to embrace the pain I can get faster. If I train faster, I will run the race faster. And the happiness and satisfaction at the end will be that much greater.

These next couple months are going to be about training hard and embracing the things that hurt. Because that will mean I am doing something right.