Smile Big Run Hard by Sam Boatwright

Author:Sam Boatwright
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781482162
Publisher: Grosvenor House Publishing
Published: 2013-08-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Other people run too!

“People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they’ll go to any length to live longer. But don’t think that’s the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life – and for me, for writing as whole. I believe many runners would agree”

— Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

— Christopher McDougall, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Day 32, one of the toughest on the run, but also one of the best. I felt that I needed something to help me kick start my day; I needed someone to know how I was feeling, but, in reality, nobody could. All the messages in the world couldn’t seem to shake me out of this mood, so I grabbed my phone and decided to google ‘Quotes about running’. These two quotes stuck out amongst a sea of others. I feel like the lion and the gazelle: I know every morning I have to get up, I won’t starve, but I will fail and, for me, that just wasn’t an option. GET UP AND MOVE!

Head down and crack on, remember your roots, remember why you are running and burn your legs, like they have never burnt. Go to war with the road and beat it; with every hill, and every single step, push harder and harder to make the run submit. Waging war against anything and everything was the only way I was going to complete the run. Forget the pain, forget everything you think you know about running, push through it; nothing worth doing is ever easy.

There is something in Britain called the North, South divide. People in the North are believed to be stingy, hard fisted, gritty, but friendly people. Whereas people in the south are hostile, unfriendly people that only care about themselves – apparently. If you believe this, you’re an idiot. I can argue that every single town I went through showed, in its own way, that there are amazing communities all over that are just bursting to show their generosity.

I drafted in emergency drivers on day 32. People who had no idea who I was, or where I was from, but knowing who I was running for, wanted to help.

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