A question of motivation

At times, I find endurance sport a little odd. I mean, yesterday I watched a couple hundred people run through mud and rain and wind, around soccer fields and on trails, up and down hills, in direct competition with all the people around them. And I wondered, not for the first time, why we do endurance sports.

Although I recognize the health benefits built into “training” (vs. exercising), I would likely have a similar resting heart rate/flat stomach/skinny physique by going to the gym a couple times per week.  I mean, at some point I won’t be able to train anymore. I’ll be reduced to exercising, at at that point I think I’ll wonder what the big deal was.

What drives us, then? What drives those guys and gals I watched yesterday? It’s humourous, actually. When you walk around the field you hear people screaming things like, “Make it hurt!” or “You gotta go!!!” or “Push, push!!” And when I hear these things I wonder why it’s so important that we make it hurt, or have to go, or push beyong that point of comfort.

Why push? Why hurt? Why go? Or, at the least, why push/hurt/go so much. Can’t we just do it purely for fun?

So I’ll tell you why. It’s because people who do competitive endurance sport recognize the satisfaction of a job well done. Think about that. If you have ever competed in sport, you have likely come up short of your goal. Those moments suck. The number of heads down after the race yesterday prove that.

But if you have ever competed in sport, you have also likely surpassed your goal. And you remember that feeling–of how it felt so good to go faster, with less effort. It’s those moments we train for: those moments of personal triumpt that no one can take away from us.  And it is those moments on the minds of all who struggle, because they know there will be other days where they’ll be able to lift their head up again. 

And so we carry on. We carry on because we know, that even when the darkness sets in, there is still, somewhere out there, the possibility of light. And it’s that possibility that drives us.