Running for my mind

Each footstep whispers against concrete, breath silent beneath the din of summer cicadas. The light wind, scented of exhaust and cedar trees, whips up little gusts against my face as hot as a fever breath. I exit the shade of the park trees; August sunlight at midday peak beats onto shoulder skin, sweat beads at my elbows. Asphalt and jet exhaust and dry summer field grass. My lungs ache from the heat. My abdominal scars burn. And still I run. 3 miles. Pray. 5 miles. Meditate. 6 miles. Walk. Hydrate. Sweat. Run home. Repeat the next day in some varied format.

Runners, like myself, often chuckle about the "why" behind their love of running. Its a painful sport. My cesarean scar from the emergency delivery of my son nearly 7 years ago pains me sharply during every run to this very day. My feet can ache and my knees crackle and pop. And yet running is my church, my meditation, my stress relief. How do people run beyond their threshold of discomfort? How do I continuously push beyond my gut wrenching pain? Why do I feel so good emotionally and mentally after I run?

The ability to push yourself during physical exertion is buried in your mind, in your thought process and outlook. According to Runners World, self monitoring and focus on technique is one important mental strategy. Focusing on form, relaxation, pace can help...but "too much" can be "detrimental." (1) Personally, I set a goal mileage, a basic set of exercises, then I go out and do it. I think about my frustrations, worries, thankfulness, happy moments...running is deeply introspective and mentally healing at the same time. Indeed, when I am happy and tired my mile split times are humorously slow. When I hurt too bad I just call it a day and walk home. But I always feel better after I run, especially after a stressful day.

The secret, for me at least, is that I treat running as my free therapy. It makes me feel alive. It makes me feel "up" - and considering the fact that the "runners high" is real, running multiple miles probably helps me in ways I don't fully understand. Science, psychologists, and even doctors do not fully understand it, either.

So what makes running enhance moods? For starters, running effects your limbic and prefrontal regions of your brain - and here is where it gets contentious. Endomorphins and dopamine have been blamed, then discounted, then cited again as the reason the brain gets happy with a runners high. There is a blood brain barrier, and only the smallest molecules can pass through it, and unfortunately dopamine is too small to fit. Anandamine is small enough to cross the barrier between blood and the brain. It has been used as an explanation and is a trigger mechanism for endorphin release. The tiny fatty acid anandamine (also known as anandamide) works like the human body’s version of THC, the chemical in marijuana that causes high feelings. (2,3). Other studies discount anandamine as the runner’s high source. (2) Leptin, the hormone telling your body that its full and to conserve energy, is also cited as a possible source of the high.(3)

What seems clear from all of the research available is that the prefrontal and limbic regions of the brain are greatly affected by natural chemical processes sparked by running. The limbic system known to be crucial to the processing of emotions and the feeling of happiness. Something chemical happens in your brain and bounces about within these regions, making runners feel relief, happiness, or even high. Thus, running and improved mood are deeply connected. What I feel during and after my daily run is very real and very much part of my brain and body chemistry.

Maybe, in the end, running is both my therapy and my medication.

Resources:

(1) Runners World. 21 March 2016. What you think about affects how fast you run. Retrieved from: http://www.runnersworld.com/sports-psychology/what-you-think-about-affects-how-fast-you-run (retrieved 11 Aug 2016)

(2) Psychology Today. May 2008. Runners High Revisited. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-playing-field/200805/runners-high-revisited. (retrieved 11 Aug 2016)

(3) Business Insider. 31 May 2016. What Causes A Runners High. Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-causes-a-runners-high-2016-5 (retrieved 11 Aug 2016)

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