Play is where life lives

We who run...are different from those who merely study us. We are out there experiencing what they are trying to put into words.

The answer to the big questions in running is the same as the answer to the big questions in life: Do the best with what you've got.

Life is a positive-sum game. Everyone from the gold medallist to the last finisher can rejoice in a personal victory.

And while these pounds were being shed, while the physiological miracles were occurring with the heart and muscle and metabolism, psychological marvels were taking place as well. Just so, the world over, bodies, minds, and souls are constantly being born again, during miles on the road.

On the roads, I can see truth revealed whole without thought or reason. There I experience the sudden understanding that comes unasked, unbidden. I simply rest, rest within myself, rest within the pure rhythm of my running. And I wait.

Why race? The need to be tested, perhaps; the need to take risks; and the chance to be number one.