How Running Transforms Life As Well As Sport
Many athletes use running to aid their sport, but it can also help all areas of your life too
“Run Forrest, run!”
Was the cry of a frightened teenager Jenny Curran in the famous movie Forrest Gump which was about a very simple young man from Greenbow, Alabama.
Jenny was used to being harassed by her good for nothing father so she shouted at her best friend Forrest Gump to get away from his bullies as quickly as he could. As Forrest loved Jenny he always listened to her words. But little did either of them know that that simple act of running would lead to making the intellectually challenged Gump a famous millionaire.
So running is worth mastering as it is not only a base skill in many sports but has many other benefits that can last a lifetime as well.
Running:
Running by itself is a sport.
And many different branches of running have a variety of professional athletes that train daily to master their pursuits.
- Sprinting 100 meters was mastered by the tall and zip quick Usain Bolt,
- Bolt had success at 200 meters with Yohan Blake and Michael Johnson also being top runners in that realm,
- Wayde Van Niekerk as well as Johnson often made the podium as a champion of the 400 meters race,
- David Rudisha, Wilson Kipketer, and Sebastian Coe ripped up two laps of the track many times to win at the 800 meters,
- Noah Ngeny of Kenya is another who was rarely bettered at 1,000 meters,
- Hicham El Guerrouj is famed for his 1,500 and 2,000 meters running,
- Daniel Koman was hard beaten at 3,000 meters,
- And Joshua Cheptegei was a flyer at 5km.
But there are many other distances too. The 10km, 20km, half marathon, and full marathon are ever-popular distances for amateur runners to build up to and some even go beyond that to train for triathlons, ultra marathons, and iron men which all feature long-distance running as a main method of movement.
Hurdles, road running, cross country, trail running, fell and mountain running is other examples of how moving one leg after another can be a huge pleasure to many.
Sports that require running:
Having the ability to run sets an athlete off with an advantage as many sports require strong running ability from the off.
Many popular team sports require running such as:
- American football,
- Baseball,
- Basketball,
- Volleyball,
- Olympic handball,
- Soccer,
- Rugby,
- Relay teams.
Popular individual sports like tennis, badminton, squash, racquetball, and other forms of track and field demand that running is central to success.
What are the benefits of running in sports?:
Let’s face it though not everyone is a professional athlete most of us have two legs so we can reap whatever benefits there are by running with them.
Even if we don’t have the patience, technical ability, or drive to learn new skills of the sport we can at least get outside and run a bit to give ourselves a chance at getting involved in some form of sport at some stage in life.
And if we do choose to get out and move then running will give us many benefits:
- Running is convenient. You don’t need to have loads of kit to start running and you can do it anywhere at any time,
- It’s cheap. Although some people prefer to run in their tracksuits only a new pair of shorts and running shoes will set you back when you begin,
- Running gives your mental health a boost as there are many positive chemicals released when moving,
- It increases your lung capacity which means that asthma and other respiratory illnesses are less likely to occur,
- With vitamin D being so important for your immune system being outside and running will allow you to easily capture it,
- Arteries are kept fit when running and a person’s blood pressure is also aided,
- Many people swear by running as a means of losing and controlling their weight,
- Running it improves your energy and overall longevity of life.
Running is your sweet fight or flight:
Perhaps one of the main reasons why running occurs in so many sports is because it’s a natural response to our day to day human fears.
Many great sportspeople have said they have been initially motivated by fear and running is a way to physically react to such feelings.
Had Forrest Gump not run from his bullies then who knows how his life would have ended up? But, likely, he wouldn’t have had as much success and the fame that he did.
So running entertains us and keeps us fit by many people attempting sports all around the world. To pick one sport over another would make the earth a very boring place. Rather I liken running to the central ingredient that makes all sports richer.
Because sport is a lot like life in the way it mimics chocolate.
And as Forrest Gump always about chocolate:
“Life is like a box of chocolates, you just never know what you`re gonna get!”
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