9 Transformational Moments in The Running Journey
The common experience.
There are certain commonalities to the runner’s experience that are hard to express to the non-running community. These events in the runner’s life should ring familiar to you. These are not physical events per se. These are mental events stimulated by the intersection with running. These are the ‘aha’ moments of our running lives.
I have read many books by runners of the ‘My Story’ genre. These are from people of different walks of life from all over the world.
I have interacted with and interviewed hundreds of runners one-on-one. The stories start to blend together in their common arcs. The stories have common waypoints on the runner’s journey. What are those way points?
- The moment of decision.
The first common and powerful moment is the moment of decision. At some point in the runner’s life they decide to start. Whether they are an ex-runner returning or a new entrant to the pursuit.
The decision happens when there is some sort of internal tipping point reached. In some it is quite dramatic. The doctor says you’ll be dead by 40 if you don’t start taking care of yourself. The loved one is stricken by some incurable disease prompting them to act. An accident or health event suddenly and precipitously changes their perspective on what life is.
These are the dramatic stories we hear and tell but there are a host of others. Other common souls who just felt the urge to move, to do something, anything to change the direction of their life. To physically change the trajectory of their float through life.
Maybe it’s as simple as seeing a race finish on TV or having a friend challenge them. These less dramatic turns end up as a habit, less desperate but just as strong.
Whatever the trigger is. Big or small. Life threatening or mundane. The decision is made. Maybe you can remember that point, that day, hour and minute of your decision. From that point on you are a runner.
- The moment of challenge.
There is a point early in our running journey where someone, maybe one of those new running friends, says “Let’s do X” – where X is a marathon or triathlon or ultra-race. When they say this we react in disbelief. We may even recoil in fear. We either say or think “I could never do that.”
Then it starts to itch at us like a buzzing insect. Our mind keeps returning to that challenge. We find ourselves unexplainably on the event website or researching what it would take. Somewhere a little voice whispers “Why couldn’t you?”
Then it begins. The long climb to that unreasonable thing that now takes over your life. It pulls your family and friends in one way or another. It crowds out lesser considerations. The challenge becomes your raison d’etre. It runs in your blood like a fever.
Somewhere in the journey to become worthy of the challenge you find the next moment.
- The moment of doubt.
In every runner’s journey the darkness comes. It comes in waves. It comes in your preparation. It comes in your execution. It comes when your exhaustion begins to wear down your determination. The doubt creeps in.
Standing in the trail in the freezing rain with a sore ankle and a ferocious head cold you slump your head to your chest and the voices say “Maybe it was too much to ask. Maybe I’m not up to the task. I’m just so tired. There wouldn’t be any true harm in giving up. People would understand.”
Yes. Others would understand. They don’t know why you’re doing it anyhow. But you would not understand. You could not forgive yourself.
And you push on, mindless and near broken but alive and striving on to the next common milestone.
- The moment of triumph.
Crashing through that finish line, rising to the challenge you become something more. You are bigger, grander than your training and your event. You are a runner melded and changed by saying yes to the challenge, struggling through the doubt and climbing to the finish.
This is the moment of triumph.
The triumph may change your life. The little voice now asks “If I can do this thing that I didn’t think was possible, what else can I do?”
You are THAT person, that athlete and this triumph cannot be taken from you.
But what follows commonly may not be so triumphant.
- The moment of ennui.
Then the triumph fades. You find yourself lost. With no challenge to drive you and no mountain to climb you sink into a funk. The post event ennui grabs you by your soul and you suffer the muddy ache of lack of purpose.
Sometimes the trough of despair last for weeks and consumes the athlete. At some point the runner remembers that they are the person who rose to the challenge and did this great thing. They ask “what’s next?” and another challenge forms.
Eventually the runner will mature. They will learn to smooth out the ups and downs of the journey. They will learn to embrace the process and the journey. They will embrace the lifestyle. Then they are changed forever.
And as they travel through this running life they will experience other common moments.
Like…
- The moment of epiphany.
At some point in your running life it will happen. That moment of clarity that pierces you like a metal shard through to your soul.
It will find you unexpectedly on a frozen moonlit trail as you turn your gaze to the stars in heaven. As the steam of your breath circles in meandering clouds a notion will hit you. It will be so clear, so true, so precise in its meaning you will be stopped in your tracks.
In these precious moments of epiphany the truths of the universe seem to be revealed. Call it runners’ high. Call it a moment when the veil drops. Call it a thin place in our known universe where we get a peek through the scratched window into another.
Again on our journey we have lighter moments of introspection, like…
- The moment of oddness.
There is another moment similar to the epiphany where we are pulled from our running by something odd. It might be suddenly coming across something manmade in a sea of wilderness. An old car as if parked in a different timeline, a boat incongruently tilted in the vast desert. A pair of pants hanging in a remote tree.
These are the moments of discovery where you just have to stop and wonder. Is this real or did I stumble into some sort of alternate timeline? Are there cameras somewhere? Your mind struggles to put together a plausible story as to how this thing came to be in this place – and the real story is probably much better.
But the best moments are yet to come and have less to do with where you are and more to do with who you’re with.
- The moment of friendship.
At some point in your running journey and at many points if you are lucky your will stumble into a kindred soul. In some treacherous endeavor you’ll meet and understand another human. You will connect and pull together as a team and push each other through the hard spots.
It is friendship joined and shared in these common moments of the runner’s journey. These bonds are stronger than common things. They are formed in a mutual understanding and a shared passion akin to the battlefield fox-hole.
This may be where we begin to understand the community of the sport. We learn to be in service to like-minded and like-souled individuals. We connect and become a greater organism than when we began the journey alone.
And the final moment is where we arrive and we find ourselves in the journey.
- The moment of peace.
Eventually on this journey we will be found by peace. When all the races have been run. When all the challenges have been conquered. When the memories of friendships shared are cemented in our beings. We find the serendipity of a worthy journey. We find the kindness of common souls.
We find peace.
This is the runner’s journey. These are the way-points that we visit on the way. This thing that begins as an adventure into the unknown becomes the fabric of our lives.