slvrsluger Wisdom

Occasionally during my catchups with slvrsluger, in between him regailing me with stories of aquariums, free office cookies and even freer money, he accidentally brings forth a shimmering pearl of pure wisdom. When recently talking about my newfound enjoyment of running, I mused that I would like to do a marathon at some point, but that it made sense to me to do a half marathon first. His reponse was simply: “why? Why not just aim for a marathon; you’ll run a bunch of halves in training”. And of course, he is right - why not aim higher.

The most interesting aspect of running so far for me is without a doubt the mental side, the ability to keep pushing further even when you think you are done. Fortunately, I think this is probably something that I might be alright at already - there is a certain mental darkness I can tap into, without having to cultivate it from scratch. Long distance runners speak of the ecstasy that succeeds pushing through the deepest pain, the euphoria of finding the void, the pure joy that can be found in the solidarity of running for miles and miles on your own. These sound far more appealing to me than trying to run fast - instead, I want to run far.

Running seems like the perfect selfish exercise. I know I have it in me to run a half marathon, I have the mental strength to do it this weekend if I wanted (albeit with a high injury risk), so what would it achieve to do it as part of an event? The same with a marathon - I’m sure I could do one in the next 3 months if I followed a training plan, barring injury. What would I be proving to anyone by doing it though? I have no interest. I want to run for myself, and myself alone, as far as I can.