The lonely thoughts of a long distance runner

http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/what-we-think-about-when-we-run

After three decades of distance running I have realized that I run, mostly in pain, just to experience the handful of occasions when the body seems to be powered by jet engines and does not feel any resistance and the running feels effortless. It is pure bliss, and on those occasions the mind can be free of thoughts. Most of my distance runs involve feelings of pain. I don't run with headphones or mobile devices. At the beginning of my run I usually play music inside my head (songs like Morning has Broken or These are days you remember, music I grew up with). I let my imagination run with me and do role play- during today's run I imagined that I was the captain of an All Blacks team that had just lost a game, and I had to address my teammates. As a distance runner I use my imagination to power me through my pain. Distance running also provides many interactive experiences for a runner- I remember one particular training run where a female runner just blew past me. Being a good runner, my ego hurt far more than my body and I ran as hard as I could to catch her, but I could only see her face before I collapsed and fell down while she continued running. A few days later I saw her face on the cover of a sports magazine- she was in the U.S. Olympic Marathon team.

I liked Ms. Schulz's coverage of the topic, from fiction to non fiction, from Alan Sillitoe to Gardner. It should be added that Tom Courtenay and Michael Redgrave brought "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" to life on the silver screen.