When I was 15 or 16 I went to the hospital\u00a0for a physical. The doctor looked me over \u2013 basically healthy, okay. Then he looked at my feet, grimaced a bit, and proclaimed, \u201cyou\u2019ll never be a runner with these.\u201d<\/p>\n
I took it as gospel truth at the time, but soon after began at least\u00a0trying<\/em> to run with my older sister who was a competitive\u00a0cross-country\u00a0runner in her high school days. And run I did. My very low arches (not quite flat feet) have caused me some difficulty here and there, but through adjustments in form and flow, I\u2019ve managed to run about half a dozen half-marathons and one full one<\/a>. Time to start thinking about that second full one\u2026<\/p>\n For me, and I imagine for most runners, running has always been about more than just running. There is a sense of possibility that comes with pushing oneself further than one has gone before, feeling the burning of the legs and lungs, the pain, the desire to\u00a0just stop<\/em>, and then going on anyway,\u00a0knowing that you can. That sort of self-overcoming translates into other aspects of life, where we can feel stuck or limited or unappreciated. The Buddha said that life is\u00a0dukkha<\/em> \u2013 unsatisfactory or suffering \u2013 but he also said there is a way out of\u00a0dukkha<\/em>, but it takes some work. The process of working one\u2019s body-mind (as the two are never separate) in ever longer and more challenging runs builds the habit of overcoming limitations.<\/p>\n As a chubby shy kid \u2013 not just shy but developing social anxiety disorder in my late teens \u2013 I had my fair share of\u00a0limitations to overcome.<\/p>\n A second aspect of running that I have found fascinating is how it can tie directly into Buddhist or other Asian philosophies and practices. It is, after all, a very weird bit of sport. Just running? No balls? No teams? No Pok\u00e9mon? What does it do for us in terms of helping to recognize that mind-body connection?<\/p>\n In 2007 I was turned on to \u201cChi Running<\/a>,\u201d a method \u2013 and book \u2013 aimed at allowing the body\u2019s natural flow of energy to propel the runner forward, almost effortlessly. I soon after found \u201cBorn to Run<\/a>,\u201d which further explored the history and physiology of running \u2013 again suggesting a sort of effortless flowing method of running. \u00a0So if we\u2019re \u201cborn to run\u201d as a species and have the capacity to let our own bodily energy (chi \/ qi) propel us, perhaps even this chubby, nearly flat-footed guy could get serious about running.<\/p>\n And serious I became.<\/p>\n Fast-forwarding to today, I\u2019m happy (though still shy) to note here that I\u2019ve been interviewed and featured on ON BEING\u2019s new podcast, Creating Our Own Lives (COOL)<\/a>, alongside Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills and a host of truly, truly amazing men and women, all runners and incredible human beings. Listen, for example, to Christina Torres<\/a>:<\/p>\n People from high school now tell me, like, I never thought you would have become a runner of any kind. I always used to tell people, \u201cI\u2019m not a runner, my body could never do that.\u201d And once I did it, it was this feeling of, like, what else have I been lying to myself about? What else have I been hiding from because I was scared? Yeah, for me, it was this sense of limitlessness, like all of a sudden there were no expectations I could put on myself, because I felt like I could expect anything.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Or Ashley Hicks<\/a>, founder of Black Girls RUN!<\/a>:<\/p>\n When I run, the one thing that I like to do is I don\u2019t run with music, headphones, anything. I call myself a true minimalist runner. Literally it\u2019s just me and my running clothes. I like to go out and I start out slow and then I will pick up my pace after that. But for me, it\u2019s just the idea of allowing myself to kind of settle into the run. Settle in and to feel the road beneath your feet. Settle in and really acknowledge your surroundings. I think a lot of times we go through life and we\u2019re not really present in the moment, so when I run, it\u2019s this idea of really being present and acknowledging where I am and what I\u2019m doing and the purpose.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Or any of the other remarkable individuals interviewed for the series<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is one of those moments when I look at my life with a bit of wonder and gratitude. I have been a bit lazy with my running for the last couple years, but this week I managed two longish runs of over 30 minutes and tonight I attempted and mostly completed a long uphill mountain run \u2013 about 35 minutes up and 25 minutes down. I keep thinking I would like to add more to what I have written<\/a>\u00a0and what I mentioned in the interview<\/a>, but I think it is almost one of those things that has to be taught in person. Certainly, we can all think about and practice \u201cleveling the pelvis\u201d out when running, especially if we are a meditator who has done this on a cushion. Yet that process is done in the movement of running, so there are a number of sensations, from the legs on up to and through the lower back, that need to be watched. Put briefly, those sensations should be of a new looseness; the pelvis flowing effortlessly left and right. And that flow should be felt, again, down the legs and up the back.<\/p>\n The \u201cchi \/ qi\u201d aspect of it is in reducing blockages of that flow, which are created when we tense up certain muscles that we really don\u2019t need to use in running. The most common example of this is in the very upright form of running we see many people engaging in today. The correct posture uses slight leaning forward; such that the body remains straight but the tilt of the body creates momentum and the legs are used to simply catch each fall. Again the similarity of meditative posture is apt, where a good posture sets the pelvis at just the right tilt that the spine rises up effortlessly, a long neck bringing the chin slightly tucked in. The same principles translate into the running posture, only now we\u2019re standing and letting our legs catch us as we tilt forward and fall, fall, fall again.<\/p>\n That \u201cfall, fall\u2026\u201d process is what, ideally, keeps us from using too much energy when running. We\u2019re not \u201cpush, push, pushing\u201d ourselves along as runners with poor form do. We\u2019re just catching ourselves, again and again.<\/p>\n This is where mindfulness comes in, of one\u2019s body and one\u2019s surroundings \u2013 but that will have to be saved for another post. For now, just let me revel in a bit of gratitude to Lily Percy and the folks at ON BEING for including me\u00a0in\u00a0this series, and encourage you to find your way into running, mindfully \u00a0and with good energy flow, in the near future.<\/p>\n <\/p>