One of the first things I heard from a runner was from a coach. He said "Running's nuts. In most sports, when you're tired you take a break. In track you just push harder." And it's true. If you're not a runner, you don't know the meaning of being tired and you don't know pain. But you also don't know other things... The joy of an easy six miles, the pleasure of doing a hard four miles. You don't know what it's like and it's your loss. You never know what a pr feels like or what it feels like to give it all down the final straightaway of a 1600 meter race, battling it out with someone else who wants it just a much as you do. Running high is just a myth to you, and the idea of 7 miles at 8 AM Christmas Eve when it's 20 degrees out (even if you're Jewish...go me) is something that you'd never do. But when you do that run, you're sitting home at 9 o'clock, and while most people are asleep, you're more awake than you've ever been. Running changes your outlook; obstacles aren't so big, pain isn't so bad and you appreciate hard work and improvement. When you're driving in your car and see a hill, you wonder how it would feel to do repreats of it. You look at the roads, and remember all the times that you were at the same spot you're now at, and how it looks when you run over it. You see runners running and you smile, and wish you were out with them. Everytime you hear a number, it's either one of your pr's, your weekly milage, or you're trying to convert it from meters into miles. While you ask 'Why do you run?', I wonder 'Why don't you?'
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