Why do I run?

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I have just finished a book called Running with the Pack : Thoughts from the Road on Meaning and Mortality by Mark Rowlands. The author is a runner and philosopher and although the book is more about the meaning of life it does make some very interesting points about running.

One lesson I took from this work is that there are two types of activity; that which has intrinsic value and that which has instrumental value.

Intrinsic value = Something that you do for it's own sake.
e.g. Running as play; running for fun.

Instrumental value = Something that you do to acquire or achieve something else.
e.g. Running to lose weight, to win or to get a PB.

Rowlands goes on to explore the nature of these two elements and suggests that we can only find true joy in those things that have intrinsic value. He admits that we can find pleasure in instrumental activities but it will never satisfy in the same way as it is not fulfilling in and of itself.

My running life started by accident when I agreed to take a sponsored place in the 2012 London Marathon to raise funds for a charity I work for. In that sense it started instrumentally - in order to raise money. Since then it has continued in this vein with the goal being to improve my times and push my limits of endurance.

That continues to be my goal this year as I seek to set new personal bests in every distance from 1 mile to 26.2 miles. So far I have managed to do this at 5K, 10K and Half Marathon distance and hope to add the Marathon and mile in the coming weeks.

I have found having these goals a great help in pushing myself faster and further. It has also been a wonderful feeling to achieve the targets I set myself. However the targets just keep moving. There is always another goal to strive for and although I celebrate the achievement at the time it is always tinged with the knowledge that another goal is now waiting. I've broken the 1:30 target but can I do 1:25? I've run 35 miles but can I run 50?

Reading this book has challenged me to change my approach during the second half of the year; to seek to find the intrinsic value in running. To do this I will need to lay aside personal goals and targets and simply enjoy the activity for it's own sake. To do that I will have to leave my GPS watch at home as I find it hard not to push myself while being able to check my progress constantly.

It will be interesting to see whether I find a difference between the two forms of running in the way that Rowlands writes about. I want to develop a more mindful approach to running. This doesn't mean that I will necessarily slow down or run less, in fact part of the fun of running is the pain of pushing myself faster and further, it just won't be the reason I am running.

This has also challenged me in terms of my life in general. How much of what I do is in order to achieve something else rather than simply enjoying the moment? How much fun do I include in my schedule as opposed to things I 'should' or 'need' to do? How much time do I spend being rather than doing?

This challenging quote has stuck with me:

"The most important things in life are the things that are worth doing for their own sake."

What does that mean for me today?

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