Why do you run?
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I took on another “elite” athlete this month. He is a bonafide sub-4:00 miler and an English major - how could I refuse?!
To help me get to know him (as a runner and otherwise), I assigned him an essay … Why do you run?
Here’s what he turned in (re-printed with permission):
Joan,
Now that we’ve officially met, albeit in whirlwind fashion, I think
it’s about time I finally e-mail this essay about why I run. It’s
taken me weeks of painstaking thought. I’ve had to retrace every step
from my first official practice to the most recent race I’ve run. I
still don’t feel ready to talk about it. I didn’t realize that I had
so much emotion buried inside of me concerning running. But I’ll do
my best to convey my reasons for competing in this sport. Here goes:Thinking about why I run has directed me to realize many reasons why I
do NOT run. I do not run for fun. I don’t run for fame. I’m
definitely not doing it for fortune. There is a primal necessity that
competing in this sport has wrought in me. I need to be satisfied. I
haven’t felt it yet. I need to compete until I feel that
satisfaction. I know it’s out there. It might not come after the
perfect race, but it come after a race that I’ve spent thousands of
hours preparing for and feel contentment directly upon crossing the
finish line. I need to work harder than everyone else out there in
order to achieve this. I need to work harder than everyone else
simply in order to sleep at night.Running is something I don’t think about. It’s action before
thought. If I have to do a morning run at 4:30 am before work, I get
up and do it. If it’s 20 degrees below zero and I need to run 10
miles, I’m out the door covering my face in the wind. If I have to do
10 intervals and I’m suffering on the second one, I do all ten. If my
foot, ankle, knee, IT ban, sciatic or anything else on my body hurts,
I run until it goes away (as long as it’s not debilitating me to a
hobble). I’ve been noted as being perfectly “coachable,” to a fault.
I’m ready to listen to my body and train intelligently. I’m very
concerned that without supervision I will run my body into the
ground. I need your help.I could write hundreds of pages on this topic. I have several drafts
about why I run, all of which are different from this one. This seems
to be the most direct cause though; this explanation is the sum of my
passion, angst, eccentricity and anxiety. I am using the “perfect
race” as an anecdote. Simply put, I am not ready to stop competing.
There is no one reason why I run other than barbaric instinct.
Running hasn’t just shaped who I am, it is who I am.I’ve been fighting my way through this sport since the beginning and
will not stop.Jason Jabaut
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Wow!
Comment by Ed — 10/2/2006 @ 12:35 pm
Joan - that was great, does Jason have his own blog? I like his commitment and his seeing running as a metaphor for life. I understand that.
Comment by George - FFSG — 10/3/2006 @ 10:28 am
I hope he passed your exam…very well put. Not that it fits my situation, but I like it.
Comment by Blaine Moore (Run to Win) — 10/3/2006 @ 2:55 pm
Why do you run?…
Joan Nesbit Mabe asked an elite athlete who wants her to coach him to write an essay on why he runs. Jason Jabaut spent a few weeks thinking about that, and after countless drafts wrote a bit over 400 words trying to explain it. In his essay (which y…
Trackback by Run to Win — 10/4/2006 @ 6:10 am
jabaut, that’s awesome.
Comment by hillens — 10/12/2006 @ 11:39 pm
[...] My “elite” training group is really beginning to take shape. I already told you about Alex L’Heureux and newcomer Jason Jabaut (along with my old war horse, John Hinton) in past posts … but let me tell you a little about Devin Swann. First of all, as the former distance coach of UNC Chapel Hill, I had to overcome my own prejudice against NC State runners to agree to coach Devin. It’s silly, I know (because we’re all adults, right?) that I should hang on to sophomoric notions like, “Duke is puke and Wake is fake, but the team I hate is NC State!” I don’t know why State hated us back; our guys were never a threat in cross-country. Never. NC State won ACC’s as a team, like, a zillion times. Granted, I did have an individual champion or two and we did score more points than both Wake and State in distance at the 1997 ACC track meet [after which I “anonymously” painted our point totals on the steeple barrier under cover of darkness - Sunday night - so the team could read it when they came to practice on Monday. Of course, when our throws coach saw my graffiti, he groused, “You better paint over that before Craddock - head coach - sees it.”]. I did paint over it (I wish now I hadn’t) but no one can erase our moment of glory!! [...]
Pingback by songs of experience » do not go gentle — 10/18/2006 @ 1:51 pm
jason, inspiring and you are every word you wrote. Dont ever stop, you are the most amazing athlete I have ever seen (especially when you were a freshman and you beat me in the 400 at practice). good luck and take care of my cousin Joan!
Jared Jabaut
Comment by Jared Jabaut — 1/19/2007 @ 12:25 pm
I could never have put it better. Jason, you are an inspiration. your fellow addict and prom date.
Comment by embrady — 3/3/2007 @ 8:20 pm
Hey Jason, its the kid you met in the airport in Boston after BIG. I stumbled across this trying to find out your PRs since you left an impact on me and I wanted to know more about your running.
I still havent found out your mile time though I know its sub 4, but I think this was even better since you had told me about it and it speaks more than finding out you run 3:54.67 or whatever it is. This is way bigger since you asked me why I run, and mentioned you had written this essay and it took you so many drafts. I couldnt answer you at the time but I think I could now, it just wouldnt be very different in premise as the answer you gave. I would word it differently but the bottom line would be the same primal competitiveness, the need to work for something you love, but personally for me mixed with emotion that can only be described by thorough understanding of the book, “Once a Runner.”
Comment by Joey Kochlacs — 2/4/2008 @ 12:48 am