Let’s face it: it’s not that sportsmen are normally associated with culture or refined intelligence. Indeed, it often happens that athletes are spoken of mainly for their physical qualities rather than their intellectual ones. But this is an old and erroneous narrative. The world is full of sportsmen and women with college degrees and, above all, capable of lucid intelligence. It is indeed true that to get to a certain level, especially in professional sports, practice and mental brilliance make the real difference between being good and being excellent. In other words: you don’t get to certain levels without also being very fine brains.
The opposite myth to that of not very acculturated sportsmen is that of intellectuals or scientists who are not sportsmen at all. As if you can’t be very smart and play sports and vice versa. Take Alan Turing instead. He was one of the most important mathematicians of the last century and a man whom all mankind should thank because if there are computers today it is also because of him. Well: Turing was also a runner and achieved remarkable results, including finishing a marathon in two hours and forty-six minutes. I don’t know how many people can boast of such an accomplishment – and then go to the office and decrypt Nazi codes. No one, I think.
It’s not just exercise
In short: body and mind are not two separate galaxies, it is well understood at this point. Indeed: they are the same galaxy, and their respective moons influence the planets whose satellites they are. Those who play sports are smart, and very often those who are smart and use their heads more than their bodies need their bodies to make their heads work better. After all, it is known that runners are smarter and that running has positive influences on the mind: it makes you think better, allows you to focus on a few things (or a few problems) at a time. And to solve them.
The benefits are well known, and many people run precisely to have personal time at their disposal: to focus, to meditate, to listen to music, to finally be offline, and even, let’s face it, to have a valid justification for not having to be available for every call. To be there only for themselves.
You’ve probably figured it out by now: sports often celebrate the achievements of humanity by overcoming its limitations, and just as often it is the companion of many people who play it-whatever sport it is-to be able to think better, to be able to increase their culture, to be more mentally lucid and productive.
It is said that Alan Sorkin-a very great American screenwriter and director-had a shower installed in his studio. In fact, it is his custom to take up to 8 showers a day. Is he perhaps a hygiene paranoid? Does he sweat a lot? No, none of that. Sorkin simply realized that every time he takes a shower he gets good ideas and wanted to industrialize this method of working, which is so important to him.
Running is a bit like showering for Alan Sorkin: many of us practice it not only to stay in shape and beat ourselves and our times but to nourish our brains and put them in a position to think more clearly and linearly.
It is said that culture is what you have left when you have forgotten everything else. A way of reasoning and using your brain is what you are left with when you have forgotten everything you have studied, read or seen. Because the brain knows how to work and knows that when you run he works best.
Food for thought
What do we talk about on RunLovers? Of the passion for running, technique and products, sure. But let’s talk mostly about stories: whether they are yours or ours matters relatively. We talk to you about what we think about a pair of shoes or how we faced a difficulty once. Or we tell you the story of a famous sportsman or a less famous runner who nonetheless changed history more than the person who set a world record.
And then we’ll talk to you about books and music and film (especially on our podcast Fuorisoglia). Because another way to get out of the infamous comfort zone is to be curious, not just to split training. And books, music, movies and writing help us do that, making us grow.
And what do they have in common? They are all foods for the mind: you take them in with your eyes, with your ears or by living. And running, of course.