You'd still run

Pictures with quotes are all the rage these days. Some of them inspirational, but most of them are just plain hilarious. I'm a sucker for a good e-card, like this one:

I know it's a bit brash, but the grittiness of it pumps me up. You could treat every day as training for life, just as you think of every workout as preparation for an event. The key is, though, to realize that you are living life while training for it, so it's important to enjoy yourself along the way. The same theme should carry over into race training. Working out should be something that challenges you and leaves you stronger, not something that steamrolls you and leaves flattened on the asphalt.

But I kind of like that feeling. So I pondered this, as I saw this picture the other day:

Why do I run? Why do I force myself out the door while I waddle in pain from a workout the day before? Why do I overtrain? In search of an answer, I wrote one of these myself:

Even if there were no records to break
or medals to win,
and my body always looked strong
and I aced every exam
and no endorphins were ever released into my blood
and the first thing that I did every morning was smile
and I found love stronger than I ever thought possible
and I would never slow down
and I was always the person that I wanted to be,
saw everything that I wanted to see,
had no fear or reason to flee,
and always had fun.
I'd still run.

The only thing I can gather is that I like to do extraordinary things. I will sacrifice a lot of suffering now for a moment in the sun later. When I feel like my life becomes too ordinary, I decide to do something crazy, like register for a marathon or half ironman. Or get a tattoo. Or to go to med school. I like being able to say that some days I swim further than some people walk, bike further than some have driven, and run for longer than it takes for someone to watch a TV show.

Although I'm very goal-driven, there is definitely something else that causes me to do what I do. It's much deeper than PR's or the satisfaction of proficiency. I like crazy things. I'm drawn to things that most people are smart enough to avoid. It's kind of like a prolonged adrenaline rush, like free-falling for weeks at a time.

Which leads me to one of my favorite quotes: "When you want to quit, remember why you started"
Make sure you never forget that reason.