Why I RunReason #4 - To Live Passionately

I woke up this morning to the news that Luciano Pavoratti passed away yesterday at the age of 71 from pancreatic cancer. Although I am not a fan of opera and have seen but one of his many inspiring performances at the Metropolitan Opera House, I couldn’t help but feel saddened by the news of his passing. Although he had many shortcomings as a man, it is undeniably that he is one of the most talented singers ever to grace the opera stage, and he lived a life that was driven by his passion of music.

It is not easy to live a passionate life in the current times. Everyday we are bombarded by tasks to complete and errands to run that we cannot help but become slaves to our responsibilities at home and in the workplace. Our lives become so dominated by the roles that we play that essentially they become all that we identify with. (Consider this mental exercise: If a random stranger at your next cocktail party came over and simply asks, “What are you?” What would you say? I bet most of us would instinctively answer with our job descriptions.) I’m not suggesting that that’s a bad thing, because obviously these roles we play and responsibilities we have are what sustains us and ensures our survival as a society and as a species. But if we allow the things we have to do to be ALL that we do, we run the risk of becoming solely habitual and passive, with every minute of every hour governed by rules and circumstances.

Running for me is my chance to be free from the shackles of my daily routine. For the one or two hours a day I spend on the road, I am my own master. I can run at a leisurely pace to feel the cool pre-dawn breeze if I want, or run fast to chase the sun before it has a chance to hide beneath the horizon. For those precious minutes, I am unreachable, under the jurisdiction of neither man nor circumstance. I can start my journey when it’s convenient for me and stop when I want to stop. I am not pressured by external factors to run a certain distance or a certain pace but rather by an innate desire to run strong and live a passionate life. Running, in essence, has become my passion, and for that, I run.