Running Teaches The Power Of Perseverance

As I have previously alluded to, running teaches young men and women the value of hard work (See blog post #3). Going hand–in–hand with working hard is having to fight through difficult circumstances where sometimes you might feel like giving up. That brings us to my fourth point about Why I Run:

Running made a man out of me by teaching me the power of perseverance 

Life is all about overcoming obstacles. It’s not a question of if you will encounter them, but rather if you will be able to overcome them. Just as running requires hard work, it also requires perseverance. As Rocky Balboa once said: “life ain’t all sunshine and rainbows,” and this could not be more true for running. Here is a short list of some of the obstacles that me (and my team) have endured during my four years of high school cross country:

• Injury. This is a big one. One of my best friends, Caleb Moellenhoff, tore his hamstring sophomore year and spent the past two years working his way back to be on the varsity team. All of us have experienced injury at one point or another. Spending countless hours rehabbing is a monotonous chore, but it is the only way to make it back, and Caleb is a clear example of that.
• The last mile. This is more of a metaphorical point, that applies to running as a whole. The sport of running is all about embracing pain day in and day out in order to better yourself. It teaches us to finish strong in “the last mile,” whether of a workout or a meet, and to not fear the inevitable physical pain and mental fortitude required to do well. I still get nervous about a hard practice or a meet, but I also recognize that the pain is temporary and the result of pushing through it brings me great joy. Like most anything in life, good things don’t come easily and require a little bit of pain and growth.
• Being moved to a higher class. Although this one is not necessarily specific to running, I thought I would include it because it is also applicable to life. We had made state for class 3 all three years until our senior year, but we were moved up to class 5 for our last year. Although we were the fastest we had ever been, we knew it was a long shot to make it to state again. This didn’t stop us from giving everything we had and staying positive throughout the class change.

I feel that reflecting on these points might make them seem easier to overcome than they were because now that we can see the bigger picture, everything seems less of a big deal. At the time though, these things felt like huge boulders sitting in the middle of our path that we could never get around. During these trials, there have been days where I have felt extreme anger at the unfairness of the world, I have endured sleepless nights, and I have felt like giving up. But, as I write to you today, I am extremely proud that I, along with all of my teammates, were able to “tough it out” by running for each other – we never could have made it through if this was all self motivated. 

Because of our capacity to endure these trials, we were able to have a very successful senior senior, albeit not in the form of accolades and a state championship. Instead, we learned to push through obstacles and had a pretty darn good time doing it.  

Having to persevere through difficult periods of time in cross country has better prepared me to persevere through life in general. Whether it’s running or something else that may provide you with difficult challenges, I highly suggest you do something that tests your will to keep moving forward – it will teach you the virtue of conquering adversity, a necessary skill no matter what walk of life you are in.