Running: Cheap or Costly?
Running: Cheap or Costly?
by Patrick Reed
How much does running cost you? I don’t mean in terms of dollars and cents. For certain, ours is an inexpensive sport when it comes to the pocket book. Even the runner bedecked with the top of the trade Garmin Fenix GPS watch ($395), a set of Jabra bluetooth enabled wireless headphones ($100), the latest Nike Air Max 95 etc., etc., etc., ($149 on sale — shown below:), and all the other latest gear — say $100 for shorts for the year, $200 for tops and a $150 sweatsuit — all of that comes down to a monthly expenditure of less than $92 a month. Okay, that is almost 22 vanilla lattes a month – gulp! Still, compared to that new elite performance tennis racket or set of golf clubs — not to mention greens fees/club fees., etc., and we are well outspent. We are way cheap, us runners, generally. And, honestly, you don’t need that GPS watch. Just get the cheapest $100 Garmin Forerunner 10 and you are good to go and have saved 71 lattes on the year….
I am not interested in this monetary expenditure today. No, I am talking — how much does running cost you? Your training – Is it easy and without cost on your part — or does it cost you much? In other words, do you leave your soul out there on the trails or track from time to time?
I ask because, in our fast-food world of please me now, the art of costly anything has fallen by the wayside in many regards. We desire all gain and no pain, all muscle and no strain, victory without passion, meaning without investment.
I got to thinking about this question all the while as I have been recovering from an ailment I couldn’t foresee, and honestly cannot even pinpoint now, as I have almost recovered out of it. I got to thinking, if I run my 5k a day every day and continue to lope along, contented in my sort-of-in-shapeness, and if I stay there inert — what gem have I really uncovered? Is running only about the near-daily bliss — the momentary epiphany and no more? And thus, does it lack a real transcendence – a deeper meaning in my life??
Knowing that running “runs through it,” as it were – goes deeper – I had to explore: What does my running cost me? And if not much, I need to change something.
All of this emanates from my penchant [and stated, publicized goal] of running at least 5k a day. Today I was finally able to run that required 5k without calf pain. Hooray! But if tomorrow I repeat today, and on and on — never to reap larger harvests, have I still succeeded? Surely not. And so I see that though the daily habit of running — that dogmatic approach — serves a purpose, yet there is a larger purpose still.
Running must cost us daily. We must — despite doctor’s wiser dictums — run really hard from time to time — and more often than we do now. We must (unless of course we are forbidden because of our health) sprint to exhaustion now and again.
There forever looms the balance of heavy cost and easy cheap loping. Both ends of the spectrum have their place. But I argue that all too often we enable ourselves down to a life of less worth by loping just to the point of discomfort and then superciliously tiptoeing to our easy chairs.
No victory worth winning comes at a cheap cost. And this running life — esteemed highly among us harriers — asks more of us than we often like to admit.
Run Hard!
~Coach Patrick
image credits: www.racingpast.ca & Nike
Training must always change so that we remain adaptable. Flexibility in our thinking, muscles and training provide the tools needed to race and run well.
I completely agree; you can’t get something amazing for free. Running has certainly cost me: I started running on my high school’s cross country team as a freshman, with absolutely no running experience whatsoever. I was the slowest on the team, always finished last, and assumed I had no chance of ever getting good at running. But I sacrificed my afternoons, weekends, and summers to running, and at times my mental and physical health, as well. My senior year, when I had finally made varsity, was the fifth fastest girl on my team, had just helped my team to an amazing finish at conferences and was about to run in my first and last state meet ever, I developed excruciating pain in my right knee. Yet, I pushed through that, too, and wound up achieving my best time and place in a big meet. In doing so, I sacrificed my ability to walk properly or run at all for the next two weeks. The point is, though, I would have never made it to that point without enormous sacrifice.
And now, I, the girl who never ran a step before four years ago, run daily at college and plan on joining a distance running club. 😀
Reblogged this on 11315 Miles and commented:
I love this entry from Run 5K a Day. Probably because I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what running means to me and how to articulate that feeling. Enjoy.
I agree. Running should cost you. And I don’t mean in kit. Instead I mean by running having a ‘cost’ it therefore can be ascribed a ‘value’. If you reach a point where you see no cost, you see no value. Very few people will continue the pursuit of a valueless item.
Run until it hurts, push your boundaries, lament your inability to run, but know that the more it costs you, the more value it has.
Reblogged this on Get Going, Get Running! and commented:
I think running should cost you. And I don’t mean in monetary terms for buying kit. Like Patrick from ‘Run5kaday’, I mean by running having a ‘cost’ it therefore can be ascribed a ‘value’.
Be it time, physical or emotional cost – it should cost you something. If you reach a point where you see no cost, you see no value. Very few people will continue the pursuit of a valueless item.
Run until it hurts, push your boundaries, lament your inability to run as far/fast as you want, but never give up, keep chasing your goals.
Know that the more it costs you, the more value it has.
Wow, great article! I honestly never thought of the cost of running this way.