Why I Run: Reflecting on the Latest 10.39mi

Welcome everybody to another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul, and you’re tuned into the podcast where we recognize that in the middle of your game of life, whether you’re up by 10 or you happen to be down by 20, we all need halftime talks to uplift us, inspire us and challenge us to bring that level of performance. You know it’s gonna take to win the game.

Uncle sweat. So welcome back to another episode of halftime talks. We live for this. This is so awesome, and the way that we begin is with a little bit of appreciation. I don’t know about you, but I love the beginning of a year like sometimes I resent the fact that we always have to restart. But there is something so focusing about December, looking toward this 12 month stretch, knowing that we can transform and become something each year. I’ve been on this planet several decades, and each decade I get better, and each year I get better and understanding that by the time it’s December again, I will have had the opportunity to continue and continue to transform.

So if you’re anything like me right now, you’re sprinting out of the gate. But it’s not that early sprint that truly counts. It’s what we can sustain, and I appreciate a new year and a new approach that’s appreciation. So in today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about, as you read in the title, why I run? 2018 was a very engaging year. It was a year that turned philosophy into a practice understanding, and one of the things that I engaged in was running. Recently, I had a very cathartic, surreal, sublime experience running, and I’m going to share why I run, and also a little bit about what happened on that run that was awesome.

I think you guys are going to enjoy it. This is our first episode of 2019 five years on the 21st by the way, and uh, strapping your seat belts, prepare to take some notes. And even if those notes are only mental notes, that’ll be enough. So without further ado, let’s get into another episode. Here we go, in full disclosure, I never, I never imagined I’d be a runner. I ran in like 2004 it was like 10 miles a week. Probably even lied about that. It was probably probably eight, but it felt like I was getting three runs in a week, and they were like three miles each, but they were probably just a mile and a half.

I quit running and just started getting old. Just started feeling old. My body just started feeling like blah. I can still lift weights and do some stuff here and there, but I didn’t think I’d be running February, 26 2018 I listened to a Joe Rogan podcast with David Goggins. That’s a whole episode in itself, but one of the things I picked up was running. I didn’t know when I would begin that running, but when I did, I didn’t look back. And it was a progressive state of Growth. I was learning about my body, I was learning about my pace, I was learning about form. And when I get obsessed, I get literally obsessed.

And I from April to the end of the year, I ran almost 300 if not more than 300 miles. I didn’t log at all. So here we are in 2019 we’re a few days into the year, and it’s cold outside. It’s not winter, winter like Damn, it’s so cold, but it is cold outside nonetheless. And this weekend, it was a Sunday. I. I’ve always had a reverence for runners, and it was funny, I used to say to myself, it’s the people who are running that really don’t need to be running, you know, like they’re dodging the people who need to be running on the sidewalks.

But little did I know that runners need to run. It creates an addiction. There’s something within us that is a pull and a draw to run, no matter the ankles, no matter the pain, no matter how much we ran the previous day. Runners need to run, and so I stood there looking out my window, and I noticed runner after runner running, and it was like, do I want to run today and previously, earlier in the week, I ran six, six and a quarter miles. I ran from a house through a really delicious route all the way to the gym, got in the workout and ran home total of six.

But on the way, I was so frustrated because it was a 45 minute run, and at the end of the 45 minutes, it stopped blogging my mileage, and I knew that if I were to run that Sunday, it had to be different. So I got dressed, put on my thermals for running me myself outside, and looked in the app and realized that there was a 90 minute run and I could possibly just turn it off when I hit my time. So I set sail, and I knew I wanted more than six, but I didn’t know if I’d run for the whole 90. I thought maybe, like 6065, maybe get a 10k in, which I haven’t done up to this point.

And I began running, and it felt good. I’m starting to go through neighborhoods I don’t typically walk through. I’m starting to enjoy the scenery, the feeling of my feet striking the ground, enjoying the pace of the run. My breath, inhaling just being part of the world, using my body as a vehicle, a locomotive vehicle, moving through space and time. It is so satisfying. Running. I run for a lot of reasons. I don’t really get anywhere. I don’t run to be part of a marathon. I’m not part of a run club. I run because it is a window to my soul. And I know that sounds really deep, but let me break it down for a second.

I run because it sucks, and the fact that it sucks, the fact that you will feel fatigue, the fact that your mental chatter will negotiate with you to quit is why I run the true workout. And many of the workouts I do only begin when it gets tough, no amount of coaching, no matter, no amount of training, no amount of preparation, can take away the element of fatigue, no amount of training can take away the element of a monkey Mind. But it is those things which are not exclusive only to running, which makes me find a way to address those monkey minds of fatigue, the voice that is really begging and negotiating with you to quit, who’s pleading with you, why are we doing this to stop if and when I master those two things.

Here I have the tool set. I have the experience. I have the track record to turn that voice down in other areas. So as I’m running this 15 minutes is turning to 30 minutes. I’m in neighborhoods I don’t frequently go through. I’m in Bushwick. I’m in what Clinton Hill, then Bushwick. I cross Atlantic, and now I’m in. Crown Heights, and I’m running through parts of Crown Heights I haven’t seen in a while. I make my way all the way up in front of the Brooklyn Museum. My pace is feeling good, and I’m still so light on my feet, and it’s feeling great. I’m passing pedestrians, other runners are passing me.

I’m passing other runners. I’m taking a deep inhale, and I’m just really, truly enjoying myself. I make my way down Prospect Park. I notice where I stayed in the Airbnb for the Fourth of July a few years back, and I am truly enjoying myself to feel part of the community of life through running, seeing other people who are focused internally, externally, through their bodies and their mind is relishing eventually I cross that hour mark, I start approaching that 90 minute mark, and I’m asking myself, Do I How far do I want to push it? I negotiate with the app to press the button to continue to run after the 90 minute mark, and I see that I’ve run eight, between eight and a third miles, and there’s something within me that says, push it to 10.

Push it to 10. We can hit 10. My body’s feeling good. My ankles a little tender, but more or less, I’m not fatigued. I’m not breathing heavy. My body is keeping up. I make it to my front door. I’ve been running an hour and 52 minutes, 10.39 miles, double the length of a previous high of continuous running. I run to see what is possible and what has it cost me. It cost me two hours. I woke up the next day with some ankle pain, gingerly walking down the stairs or making sure I stretch, making sure I recover right, even to this point right now, it’s a Tuesday, and I’m not feeling the greatest but that cost, that price, is worth the reward nobody can ever take from me, the fact that I just ran 10.39 I will hold on to this and understand, if I go further than this, that it began or continue from this place of now, I know more clearly how I need to improve if I want to be better.

So the reason why I run, let me break it back down, because you might not be a runner, but you are engaged in the fulfillment of your your dreams. You are engaged in the actualization of your aspirations. And if you want them to come to you, if you want to be ready for them, I contend with you that fatigue that the monkey mind, that your deceptive mind, will try to convince you to stop when you haven’t even truly broken through the first stage. Yet, we have more in our tank than we’re willing to admit. And if we can admit, there’s more in the tank, and the way that we gain access to it is not to make it easier, but that we are better, that we have the indomitable fortitude, that we are able to persevere, that we have a spirit of resilience in us that lets us go longer when most people would stop, how you train that is up to you.

I train it with my body, so I can learn about my mind. And my mind is stronger for it. My body’s stronger for and I know as I engage in the other areas of opportunity that I seek, even like this podcast, other podcasts, building for 2019 I have the tools now. It doesn’t make it easier as you transfer into other areas, but it gives you the confidence that you are. Capable that if you can build from scratch, from here, you can build from scratch anywhere, not just in your proclivities and your inclinations and what you’re good at, but you could do it anywhere you decide to lay your attention.

I don’t understand. I don’t know if you get this, I’m not a runner. I’ve never been a runner. I don’t have a history of running. I didn’t do cross country, I didn’t do track. I played basketball and I was I was decent, didn’t have a jumper, but I could rebound over the best. That was the extent of my running. I began passionately running at what 40? Yeah, 40. So if I can do this, what can you do? There’s a lot of there’s a little bit more evidence on my table now, but there’s nothing that I will not pursue with this level of obsession and biggerness, vigorousness.

So think about it. My name is Rahim Russell. This has been another episode of halftime talks. I hope you enjoyed it. If anything that I communicated, I want to make clear is that the game of life is going to be challenging. It is going to draw and drain you. It is going to get in your mind and ask you to quit. That’s not going to change. No amount of coaching, no amount of preparation, can take those elements away, but we can be prepared for the fatigue, and despite of it, go forward. That is the strength that we see. So until next time, make sure you go to halftimetalks.net, subscribe go to iTunes, rate a review.

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