“I started running for reasons I had only just begun to understand. As a child, I ran in the woods and around my house for fun. As a teen, I ran to get my body in better shape.
Later, I ran to find peace. I ran, and kept running, because I had learned that once you started something you didn’t quit, because in life, much like in an ultramarathon, you have to keep pressing forward. Eventually I ran because I turned into a runner, and my sport brought me physical pleasure and spirited me away from debt and disease, from the niggling worries of everyday existence.
I ran because I grew to love other runners. I ran because I loved challenges and because there is no better feeling than arriving at the finish line or completing a difficult training run. And because, as an accomplished runner, I could tell others how rewarding it was to live healthily, to move my body every day, to get through difficulties, to eat with consciousness, that what mattered wasn’t how much money you made or where you lived, it was how you lived.
I ran because overcoming the difficulties of an ultramarathon reminded me that I could overcome the difficulties of life, that overcoming difficulties was life.”
― Scott Jurek
I love this quote as this is nearly my story too. I've run for as long as I could remember, mostly for the fun of the sport. I can remember the friendship games in grade school. Every summer I'd join up with the SSM Ontario Track and Field club that were competing against the SSM Michigan track and field club. I ran the 400 meter, the 800 meter and did high jump. As I got older, I found I could hold the same pace for a longer time period, and found longer distances more exciting.
I ran as a teen because it was what stopped me from giving up on the painful world I was fighting to stay alive in. No matter how tough things got, or even how tough I was on myself, I used to say, "at least I have my legs".
Today, I will often find myself using the expression, "I am a marathoner, this is nothing."
You start to look at life as another challenge to overcome, not a wall that stops you.
I often am reminded how optimistic I am, and interesting enough, it is under circumstances when people expect negativity and I'll come up with a reason to see the situation as optimistic. I really do believe there is a way through every obstacle and challenge, and that if we work together and hold true to what is important to us, that we'll get there.
Tips on remaining optimistic:
1. "Let go of the assumption that the world is against you, or that you were born with a gray cloud over your head." It isn't true. Everyone has the opportunity to change their fate.
2. "Understand that the past does not equal the future"
3. "You do not have to be a product or a victim of your circumstances"
4. "Use positive affirmations - Write down short statements that remind you of what you're trying to change about the way you see the world"
5. "Remember that life is short."
Favourite Quotes;
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
― Winston Churchill
“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
“It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it’s only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it’ll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something…. That there’s some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” - J.R.R. Tolkien
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