This I Believe

Let me preface this post with a short message; I wrote this in my junior year of high school, and used it as the basis for my college essay. It is my "This I Believe" essay and it's all about why I run. I don't have much extrinsic purpose to post this, so I just hope if you're reading it, that you enjoy it. Anyway, here it is. 

The alarms blares, I slap it off and turn over in my bed. My wrist starts buzzing, the safety net. I turn it off, sit up, grab my sneakers, lace them up, sneak downstairs and let myself outside. I set my watch and start putting one leg in front of another. I cannot recall the day where I started to love it, it just happened, I just remember one day hating it and the next day not. There is not discernable catalyst. There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who run, and everyone else. I am a runner. It is almost like an addiction to me. I used to loathe it, from running laps in soccer to running a warmup mile for track, I always complained. Then I started doing it right. Now it is something I need, something that is like an addiction and like any addiction you need to get your fix. When I manage to get out there and hit the rubber or the pavement it is just any other day. But when I don't make it out or at night if I rest my head on the pillow and didn’t go for even a mere mile, it’s a bad day. Sometimes in the morning before school or work, sometimes after, and sometimes when I really need a run I’ll go in that weird time that is so late at night you don’t know whether it's before or after school. I run for a lot of reasons; I run for focus: I run for fitness: I run for happiness: I run for fun: I run to be fast: I run for freedom; I run for inspiration. For me running is a time for my thoughts, it is a time when my ideas are formulated, it is when I strengthen my mind, running is a time where I only listen to one rule and that rule is to just keep going. I feel inspiration from others. I feel euphoria from the freedom of my feet striking the ground, the blood pumping through my body and the music going through my bones. I love running, you do not need to have anything more than motivation to do it. Sure shoes are nice, but there is nothing more fun than just letting go of my sense of time and going for a scenic route through the forest to make the world fade away. This is a pretty new thing for me. I never was a runner before, I mean sure I did track but I was the slowest runner on the team and could barely run 100 meters without feeling out of energy, now I get my energy from running. I believe that running empowers me; it gives me the power to do whatever I put my mind to, and it makes all my goals seem achievable. I do not run because I have to, I run because I can.