Personal Narrative: How The Runner Changed My Life

At eleven years old, I stood in the stands with the rest of family, watching my dad cross the finish line of his first marathon. With pain and exhaustion clearly shown on his face, I was absolutely positive that he was insane. How could he have spent the last few months training for this? However, he wasn’t the only one who was crazy, I had seen people crawl, on their hands and knees, just to make through that race. I didn’t understand why all of these people were willing to do this to themselves, willing to torture themselves, just for a race.

As I turned twelve, thirteen, fourteen and fifteen, I watched my dad continue to run marathons. I would shake my head in disbelief as he left to go a twelve mile run before I even had breakfast.

My freshman year of high school, my dad finally got …show more content…
Life can be quite stressful, and I fell into the pattern of running whenever I felt upset or anxious.

I had gotten faster, and with that I began to run longer distances. It was no longer the feeling after the run I looked forward to, it was the run itself. With every step I took, my mind would get clearer. I wouldn’t think, I would just run. It was the only time I ever felt that way. The runner’s high, truly is one of the best feelings in the world. People often talk about how when they play an instrument, they don’t think about anything else than what they’re playing. It’s like everything else just gets turned off. They say it’s the most amazing thing they’ve ever experienced.

I had never felt that feeling, until I started running. It is my passion, my escape from reality, and without it, I feel incomplete and miserable.

I understand now. I understand why my dad and every other marathoner run. They love it. Some of them love what it does to their body and how they feel afterwards. Others, like me, just love it doing it. I love the exhaustion and the pain that comes with it. But most of all, I love who I am when I