A Running Letter

Running is 100% mental. Your body can find a way through and recover from anything you do to it. Your muscles might burn, your lungs might ache, your legs may feel like dead weight or nothing at all, and your arms could feel as if they're about to fall off, but still your body will move if you tell it to.

Once you THINK you're tired or THINK you can't make it one more leg of a race, that's when you start to slow down - to walk a little bit or stop to catch your breath. Running isn't that hard, it just takes a tremendous amount of will power to break the barrier to get from fit to peak condition. To break that barrier, you have one simple decision to make: you can either become tired and stop... or you can keep running.

Deciding to stop means you started to pay attention to how hard your body is trying to keep working for you and you give up on it. You think your legs and arms will fall off just before your heart explodes and you make a decision to ease up, but in reality your body is doing everything it possibly can do to get you across the finish line, to the end line, to the ball. And it recovers, gets stronger every time, and waits for more.

Deciding to keep running means you are determined to finish what you started and will never stop or waiver until you've reached your goal. It means noticing fatigue and then going faster and longer. When you do get a chance to rest you should be thinking how short you can make it - slow down your breathing instead of gasping for breath, instantly see your next challenge and speed up your recovery jog so you can get there and demolish it. And above all, when you realize how little of the race is left or you have the finish line in sight, bust your "ars" to get there and leave no energy to spare.

I didn't break through the barrier until this last summer and man is it wonderful. I no longer feel the need to stop no matter how fast or far I go. Almost every time I run I set a new personal record and all I can think about is beating it the next day. And it's all because of the one decision I seem to always have to make on every run: I choose to keep running.

So what are you going to choose?

Written by: Matthew R Argall

Matt is a junior at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, MN and is a member of the "Auggie" Soccer Team. Matt is the son of Rob Argall. Rob is a good friend of YRRC Member, Jan Workinger.