I have a good friend named Ed. While both of us are fairly healthy, active people we go about it in very different ways. Ed is a power lifter. When I try and imagine lifting the absurd amounts of weight he effortlessly hurls away from the earth it makes my brain cry out in pain. I, on the other hand, am a runner. I have the upper body of a T-Rex. More to the point, a T-Rex that got sand kicked in it’s face at the beach by the other T-Rexes (Rexi?) because it had such puny, useless arms. To put it into practical terms: when moving furniture it’s probably a better idea to call Ed. Also he has a functioning pancreas. So there’s that.

Anyway Ed just posted a link to a comic on my Facebook page. The comic is The Oatmeal which is consistently excellent and we should all read it more, but this particular comic was about we he (the author) runs. It goes on for six pages and it’s perhaps one of the most eloquent and thought provoking pieces I’ve read on the subject. His reasons are deeply personal, as I imagine they are for most people, and while they don’t necessarily mirror my own reasons there is enough Truth in them for anyone who has been running for a while to really relate. Just as we don’t all run the same types of races, or even races at all, I think there is more overlap than not in our reasons, and they are all valid.

So the direct link to the comic is here, but I urge you to take a while and look around.

I think at some point I’ll likely post more about my own reasons for running and my shocking lack of upper body strength, but for now I think the link speaks on it’s own.