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During runs, one can reach a state of “grace” where exertion disappears and intense sensations are felt.
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Certain rituals we have while training and listening to music free the mind and intensify the experience.
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Running offers total freedom-no constraints of time, place or equipment, just a road, a path or a meadow.
Iwrite these lines directly and spontaneously, after one of my weekly runs, similar to a thousand others and yet peculiar.
For a while now, a little past the halfway point of the usual route, I have been getting into the zone, that is, into that state that I otherwise call (not just me) “of grace.” The one when the legs go on their own and the effort disappears and you can finally focus only on perceiving the countless sensations that running gives you.
I had also talked about it in terms of mindfulness, that is, the importance of experiencing these moments as they are happening and not afterwards, in memory. Then I started to have rituals, because rituals free the mind from planning or thinking: if you do the same thing every time, you can think about other things because a part of you and what you do proceeds automatically.
Caressing the leaves
For example – always taking the same route – I began to notice that I like to caress the plants I encounter in a certain spot. I call it my “giving high fives to plants,” because I imagine they are friends I meet along the way with whom I exchange a quick hello. In doing so I caress them, if only fleetingly. How many more times do I stroke leaves during the day? Never, come to think of it. It’s beautiful, you should try it, and no, I don’t think I’ve gone crazy: in my opinion plants like it too.
Then I started listening to music again in the second half, because the mind needs to feed on concepts and information (I listen to podcasts for that) but it also needs to wander and produce fantasies, and music is perfect for this purpose: listening to it while running allows you to imagine yourself elsewhere, perhaps in a movie whose soundtrack you are listening to.
A unique feeling
However, I have to justify the title of this article-which is also why perhaps you have come this far. I thought this on the finish of my run. The evening was cool despite the height of summer. It was beginning to drizzle and the sunset had not shown up; there were too many clouds. I passed by the usual gymnasium where they practice volleyball. The doors were open to let in some air and to benefit from the pleasant and unexpected cool breeze. Then I thought we were all doing the same thing: movement. Them in a group and in a gymnasium, and me alone on the street. And I thought that I – like any runner – don’t have to make appointments with anyone or have a particular place to do what I love to do, and I can decide to do it whenever I want. I decide to run 10 minutes before I do, because I feel like it and not because it is Tuesday or Thursday. I have no responsibility to anyone, I have made no commitments to anyone.
Runners are anarchic creatures: they do what they want, when they want. Rain or shine, hot or cold, alone or with company.
As long as there is a road and they run on it. And if it’s a path, that’s okay too. Even grass or rock: anywhere is fine.
Then I told myself that not having commitments, not having schedules, not having constraints of places and equipment is called one thing: it is called freedom.
By this I do not mean that those who play volleyball are not free. I say that a great many other sports are a bit more complicated to play, especially if they require the presence of a group. They definitely reserve other thrills and other satisfactions, but total freedom is a different thing.
So I thought I’d write down all the things that make running a cool thing but the truth is, it only takes one word to say it: freedom.