Day #5 – Self-satisfaction

“You have to wonder at times what you’re doing out there. Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.”

~Steve Prefontaine

You are 5 days in. Be inspired! You may wonder why you have set upon this daily regimen. That’s okay. It’s okay to question the why’s, to even be a bit dismayed from time to time about the rigors of your discipline. A great bi-product of your efforts as a disciplined runner is the ability to be truthful with these thoughts. Let them come — and let me answer them.

Why have you dedicated yourself to the daily effort? Let me count the ways: to test yourself, to prove yourself, to set out to do a thing and to complete that thing. But then there is another reason which we must not lose sight of: to satisfy your self. I purposefully separated your and self in the last sentence. I want you to remember that you are on an admirable journey to satisfy something which had been lacking in you. You had a need to achieve something greater than the status quo, to go further than you had already been, to find out how much heart you really have. Pre’s quote above reminds us of the reasons we runners keep lacing up the shoes. We are seekers of something greater – of the satisfaction of our very selves. Now, get out there and achieve!

~Coach Reed