Running for Endorphins

Today I ran 16 miles. For those of you who don’t know, I’m currently training for a marathon. I’ve got this crazy dream that I compete in an Ironman sometime in my life, preferrably before I’m 40.

I haven’t run 16 miles in a long time. I started training for a marathon a few years back and ended up not being able to continue because my leg was giving me complications. I think 16 miles was as far as I’ve ever ran. My legs kill. More specifically, my joints hurt something awful. I guess all that up and down and impact onto the hard streets and sidewalks of LA can do that to you.

Here’s another thing: People in LA don’t do a great job of respecting the walker/runner/biker. I bike everyday to work and I think drivers honestly think that bikes are not allowed on the streets. Well, anyway, today I was running and almost got plowed over by someone in a black Mercedes with tinted windows. Their windows were up, but I could here someone in the car yelling “Yo, stop! stop!” Nearly clipped my legs. I was on mile 15, so I was not exactly ready to be hurdling over oncoming cars at that point.

I digress. The glorious thing about running such a distance and what I’ve chosen as the topic here is what happens to your body the second you stop running. If you’ve been doing nothing but cruising for two hours and you suddenly stop, it feels like you’re three feet above the ground, your entire body pumped with crazy endorphins. I can see why this sort of thing can get addicting. I believe Jeff Buckley once said he loved playing really long shows because it’s musical moments at the end, the moves you do when you’re totally exhausted and unchained by any sort of anxiety that seem to be the most significant, the most spectacular. I couldn’t agree more.

~ by K E N on October 29, 2007.