Why Must We Always Be Running?

A cold sense of dread originates in the pit of my stomach and its tendrils spread in all cardinal planes as my sympathetic nervous system increases my blood pressure and heart rate – I have to run, again. My [hate]/hate relationship with ambulation that involves both feet leaving the earth began in whichever grade required the first “Presidential Fitness Test.”

This archaic fitness examination was a sure-fire way to separate the adolescent lions from the lambs. The test included a push-up, shuttle run, sit-up, sit-n-reach, and mile run component. The sit-n-reach was my JAM, while everything else was meh cause…well ya see – I was a hefty child.

As time and my perception of fitness has changed my mind, body and outcomes of these particular tests, a strong Pavlovian response remains when I see running on that whiteboard. Few things (except deadlifts) make me question capabilities more so than running.

I will never forget Gimli’s line in Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers, when the famous trio sets out in search of their Hobbit friends for the umpteenth time and he proclaims in his thick dwarfish accent, “Why must we always be running!?” I feel you bro. TRUST.

Gimli (in The Two Towers) shouts, “Keep breathing, that’s the key. Breathe.” Dr. Wells (in every episode of The Flash) coolly throws out a “Run Barry, Run!” And Paul (1 Corinthians 9:26) tells the members of the church to run with intent, not like a chicken with their head cut-off.

Three perspectives, one goal. Chances are they will all duel within your heart.

See I tend to be an out-of-breathe dwarf respiring heavily through my beard, only thinking of how far away the finish line is. My legs grow heavy, and I just start running with all calves – essentially allowing my center of mass to move backwards, rather than forwards.

It’s important to have those Dr. Wells’ in your inner circle to tell you to keep running, stop looking backwards, and move forward. I don’t know where I’d be without those who keep me accountable, or have the ability to fix my over inverted calcaneus causing me to limp through this life – hindering me from scaling the obstacles (i.e. metahumans) that so easily try to take hold of my timeline.

But the ultimate responsibility is upon ourselves, to guard what we must to allow ourselves to continue forward. From a physical standpoint, you must condition your body. From a soulful standpoint, you must guard your heart and not give it away so freely (I have a much more difficult time with the latter).

Regardless of your background King Solomon was one of the wisest men to walk this earth. His practical advice is given in Proverbs 4: A Father’s Wise Instruction (v. 12, 23-27):

“When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.”

I remind myself the interrogative: What am I running away from? What am I running towards?

Luke Cage reminds me the declarative: “Forward always, always forward.”