My family has a beloved story about my grandfather’s reaction to my dad taking up running. It was the early 1980s when running was not as popular as it has become today. My grandparents had come to celebrate my dad’s completion of the Callaway Gardens Marathon. When the race was over, my grandfather, who knew nothing about marathons or those who ran them, asked my dad if he had won the race. My dad told him that he had not, nor had he expected to win. Now a little confused about why my father would give such effort and even pay the entry fee to run a race that he did not expect to win, my grandfather asked if he got anything for running? To this question, my dad held up the t-shirt given to the race participants and said, “I got a t-shirt.” Then, my grandfather turned to my grandmother with a smile and said, “I think we have raised a fool.” My grandfather enjoyed a good joke, and he spoke these words with a grin, but I have to believe that though he intended these words as a lighthearted ribbing, they did reveal his befuddlement as to why anyone would suffer through running 26.2 miles just for a t-shirt.

It seems foolish indeed to those watching. One of the more common remarks, made in jest by those who are not runners, is that runners look so unpleasant while running. They say our faces carry the expression of pain and our general demeanor communicates suffering. The question is then asked, why would anyone want to do something that makes you so miserable?

A few years ago, I decided to start running. Several reasons motivated me to start running but chief among them was I recognized that my health was not moving in a positive direction. It was not that I had a health crisis or had received some troubling diagnosis but rather I recognized that the combination of not eating well and a lifestyle that was mostly sedentary was conspiring to rob me of energy and endurance.

When I began running, I did two things. First, I dramatically changed my diet. I cut out things that were high in sugar and salt and I cut my portion sizes. The second thing was I began to run every morning. Well, more accurately I attempted to run every morning.