Runner’s High
Definition: a feeling of euphoria coupled with reduced anxiety and a lessened ability to feel pain.
Not many people like cardio, it’s true. There are only a select few of us who ‘like’ to run. (You have to find me on the right day.) Starting off a neighborhood run is the hardest in the beginning, when your body is ramping up from rest to a runner’s pace.
But towards the end of a 5k, you begin to feel a lightness to your feet because you’ve been doing the same repetitive motion for the past 30 or so minutes. Your body is on cruise control — that’s the feeling I yearn every single time I am out on a run. Your feet begin to take over and you’re just running on the feeling of getting to the finish line.
Adrenaline takes over and you tell yourself to finish this race. You push yourself a little bit more as you inch closer. (This feeling is probably enhanced as you know you are oh-so-close to being done.) To me, the runner’s high is the most magnificent aspect of running a long race. The repetition has imprinted into your mind that everything else is second nature. Now time to replicate this ‘runner’s high’ to all aspects of your life where small steps lead to finishing the whole damn thing.
