However strenuous our work, sport brings more pleasure than some easier relaxation. Like 100,000 cross-country runners, their number ever increasing, I find in running – win or lose – a deep satisfaction that I cannot express in any other way. Running through mud and rain is never boring. Industry and perseverance, without any great natural aptitude, bring greater success in athletics than is possible in ball games.įor nearly ten years I have run about 25 miles a week: my grasp of the reasons why I run continues to grow. In athletics there are many events, running, jumping, and throwing, which suit different physiques, the long and thin, the broad and strong. The sportsman enjoys his sport even if he has absolutely no prospect of becoming a champion. There is the desire to find in sport a companionship with kindred people. There is the need to feel that our bodies have a skill and energy of their own, apart from the man-made machines they may drive. We enjoy struggling to get the best out of ourselves, whether we play games of skill requiring quickness of eye and deftness of touch, or games of effort and endurance like athletics. The satisfaction we derive from games is complex. But no explanation is satisfying that does not take account of feelings of beauty or power. Like that caused by music, it has some interplay with the rhythms inherent in our nervous systems. The electrical rhythm produced there is a source of pleasure. Small electrical impulses, so the scientist tells us, pass from our contracting muscles and our moving joints to our brain. The sense of exercise is an extra sense or perhaps a subtle combination of the others. The scientist may attempt an objective explanation. This attempt at explanation is of course inadequate, just like any analysis of the things we enjoy – like the description of a rose to someone who has never seen one. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt existed.įrom intense moments like this, love of running can grow. No longer conscious of my movement I discovered a new unity with nature. I was running now, and a fresh rhythm entered my body. A few more steps – self-consciously now and firmly gripping the original excitement. I glanced round uneasily to see if anyone was watching. I was startled, and frightened, by the tremendous excitement that so few steps could create. In this supreme moment I leapt in sheer joy. But for once there was nothing to detract from all this beauty. I looked more closely, hoping perhaps that my eyes might detect some flaw. I was taken aback – each of the myriad particles of sand was perfect in its way. I looked down at the regular ripples on the sand, and could not absorb so much beauty. I looked up at the clouds, like great white-sailed galleons, chasing proudly inland. The sound of breakers on the shore shut out all others. The air had a special quality as if it had a life of its own. I remember a moment when I stood barefoot on firm dry sand by the sea. What are the moments that stand out clearly when we look back on childhood and youth? Introduction ‘Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.’
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