You Don't Have To Be Fast. But

Distance Running Was Revered Because It Was Indispensable; It Was The Way We Survived And Thrived And Spread Across The Planet. You Ran To Eat And To Avoid Being Eaten; You Ran To Find A Mate And Impress Her, And With Her You Ran Off To Start A New Life Together. You Had To Love Running, Or You Wouldn't Live To Love Anything Else. And Like Everything Else We Love-everything We Sentimentally Call Our 'passions' And 'desires'-it's Really An Encoded Ancestral Necessity. We Were Born To Run; We Were Born Because We Run.

Deny Your Nature, And It Will Erupt In Some Other, Uglier Way.

But Yeah, Ann [trason] Insisted, Running Was Romantic; And No, Of Course Her Friends Didn't Get It Because They'd Never Broken Through. For Them, Running Was A Miserable Two Miles Motivated Solely By Size 6 Jeans: Get On The Scale, Get Depressed, Get Your Headphones On, And Get It Over With. But You Can't Muscle Through A Five-hour Run That Way; You Have To Relax Into It, Like Easing Your Body Into A Hot Bath, Until It No Longer Resists The Shock And Begins To Enjoy It.

The Only Way To Truly Conquer Something, As Every Great Philosopher And Geneticist Will Tell You, Is To Love It.

Make Friends With Pain, And You Will Never Be Alone.~ken Chlouber, Colorado Miner And Creator Of The Leadville Trail 100 Mile Race