40 Reasons to run

1. It makes you feel better every day. This doesn’t mean beating depression, heart disease, diabetes or any of the other illnesses that running can stave off. We’re talking about the fact that you always feel better after a run. And that’s powerful medicine.
2. Running offers endless competitive opportunities. We human beings love to challenge ourselves; it’s coded somewhere deep in our DNA. Perhaps that explains why we’re always frying to shrink the size of the silicon chip, build solar-powered vehicles, develop protein-packed strains of rice and run new marathon PBs.
3. You can go at your own pace. You don’t have to run fast to have a rewarding run, and you don’t have to set a PB to enjoy a race. You can receive almost as many mental and physical benefits from a slow mile as you do from a fast mile. We have a friend who likes to say, “I’ve never had a bad run. Every run is its own reward.” It’s an attitude we would recommend.
4. You don’t need an instruction manual. If you can walk; you can run. if you run a little bit more, you can enter a 5K. A little more, and you’re on the way to a half-marathon. It’s as easy as that Of course, hundreds of articles and books are published about running and while it’s all useful stuff the part we like best about running is that it’s so stunningly simple.
5. It’s the world’s best weight-loss exercise. Every single weight-loss expert advises two things: exercise and sound nutrition. Running is the king of the calorie-burning exercises, and it’s easy to do any time, any place, any season. The added bonus is that, when you begin to exercise regularly, you eat fewer harmful fats and more of the recommended nutrients.
6. You can run errands (and exercise the dog, too). We know someone who returns videos to Blockbuster and books to the library on an every-other-day jaunt that also takes her to the post office to pick up packages and deliveries. And every dog owner we know has an eager four-legged training partner.
7. Running gives you more energy. This is one of the favourites, and one of the more difficult to explain. Running is something of an energy paradox, because most people assume that running tires you out, which seems a logical assumption. But its wrong. In fact runners report having more energy that non-exercisers.
8. Running gives you more time to be with yourself. For every proponent of social running, there’s someone else who savours itas private time to be alone with his or her thoughts. There’s no reason to pick sides. We think that both solo running and group running are great activities.
9. It helps you reach creative break thoughts. Writers, musicians, artists, managing directors, engineers and many others use running to solve mental blocks and make must-do-it today decisions. As prolific author Joyce Carol Oates wrote: “Running! If there’s an activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can’t think what it might be”. The Greek mathematician Archimedes reached his ‘Eureka!’ moment in a warm bath (though he then went running down the street), but most people reach them in a warm sweat.
10. 1t’s a positive addiction. This expression was first made popular by Dr William Glasser, who theorised that you can replace a harmful addiction such as smoking, alcoholism, overeating with a positive one like running. The result being that you will become a happier, healthier person.
11. Running gives you an excuse to soak in the bath. First you ice any sore leg muscles for about 10 minutes, then you slide into the steaming, frothy waters. It’s the perfect therapy. Just be sure to have a bottle of your favourite carbohydrate or recovery drink nearby.
12. Running is a family affair. Many races have events for everyone in the family, ranging from a children’s 1K to a walking event. And it’s easy to plan an exercise activity for the whole family. The smallest can clamber into their baby stroller, parents can take turns pushing while running, and the four-year.old can follow on their new two-wheeler.
13. Running is like a best friend. It’s always there and always dependable. We all go through phases in our lives. Sometimes we run more; sometimes we run less. That’s fine. Running adapts itself easily to your ebbs and flows. Best of all, when you need it more, it’s always there for you. It always comes through.
14. Running improves your time management. Whether loosely lodged in your mental schedule or time-tabled in your diary, your daily run is a focal point of your day. It helps you organise everything else you need to do often into BR (Before running) and AR (After Running) time frames.
15. Running is honest. The distance and the stopwatch don’t lie. The winner isn’t determined by a group of judges assigning point scores for form, clothing, and hairstyle. You get back what you put into it. In today’s complex, political world, that’s a rare thing.
16. You can use running to help others. Running and charity fund raising are now seemingly inseparable activities. No other sport or activity comes close to running’s record of raising money for good causes. Every year, thousands of runners collectively raise millions of pounds for charities throughout the UK. Top of that list is the Flora London .Marathon, which now raises over £20 million for Charity annually.
17. Running increases your appreciation of the environment. You crave fresh, clean air when you run. You long for forest trails, towering trees, pure water. You have plenty of time to ponder the big questions. You resolve to save the Earth. It’s a lovely place.
18. Running lets you set and read new goals. Last month you could only run a mile at a time. Now it’s two miles. That’s progress! Success! It’s a cause of mmeasurable satisfaction, and the desire to set and reach another goal. Some runners set distance goals. Some aim for faster times. Some want to run in every European country. Others want to lose weight or live long enough to see their grandchildren graduate from university. Pick any goal, no matter how small, as long as it has meaning for you. Then try to achieve it.
19. It’s a great way to explore new places. We know lots of runners who go out for a run as soon as they arrive at a new location. It energises you after a long drive or flight. helps reset your biological clock to the new time zone and gives you a great way to get oriented to the city’s basic layout. If you’re visiting as a tourist, there’s no better way to explore a new place than to see it on foot.
20. Running makes you look younger. We can’t prove this, as the Government refuses to fund vanity research. But go to any road race and look around at the vigorous, well-toned runners. You might be surprised how many of these are in their 40s, 50s or even 60s.
21. Running gives you a legal high. And a healthy one, too. After all these years, the ‘runner’s high’ remains a fairly elusive subject, at least to scientists. No one is quite sure what causes it or why, and most runners would admit they don’t feel a high on every run just often enough to make it very rewarding.
22. Running teaches discipline. And that’s a good thing. It’ll serve you well in almost everything you do. In field  after field it’s a positive addiction This expression was first made popular by Dr William Glasser, who theorised that you can replace a harmful addiction such as smoking, alcoholism, overeating with a positive one like running. The result being that you will become a happier, healthier person.
23. Women rule, genetically speaking Running philosopher George Sheehan counselled runners interested in fast performances to “choose your parents carefully”. As it turns out, he was half right. The mitochondria in your muscle cells are their powerhouses they control energy production. And all your mitochondrial DNA came from your mother. Your father doesn’t contribute. So, if you want to run fast, choose your mother carefully!
24. Running will build your daughter’s confidence and self-esteem. So she’ll be less likely to have sex or get pregnant at an early age. The US-based Women’s Sports Foundation announced these results in 1998. They apply to girls in all sports, but especially lifetime sports such as running.
25. Running improves your regulanty. This is why the portable toilet industry loves runners. But it’s a good thing for you, too, as it may be one of the primary reasons why runners have a low risk of colon cancer.
26. The last-place finisher gets the biggest cheer. And they deserve it. After all, he or she has been running longer than anyone else in the race. We like the way spectators and other runners applaud the back of the pack.
27. Size doesn’t matter. In fact, small men and women may have an advantage just look at the elite runners in a marathon. Nevertheless, there are enough larger people in the mass fields of any major race to realise that not only is running sexless and ageless, it’s also sizeless, too.
28. You can do it with a partner. Running is a great activity to share. Even if your paces aren’t perfectly matched, you can make time for those runs when one of you slows down, and both of you simply enjoy each other’s company.
29. Running is efficient. In a world so crowded with activities and responsibilities that it’s difficult to make time for P anything. Running gives you a terrific workout in just 20-30 minutes. If company CEOs and other high-fliers can make time to run, the rest of us can, too.
30. Running doesn’t require much equipment. Shoes, shorts, T-shirt. Everyone’s got them, and that pretty much completes the equipment list. Toss on another layer when it gets chilly. Ship down somewhat when it gets warmer. It’s that simple.
31. Running is child’s play. Every child runs. Then stops. Then runs again, It’s not a training session. It’s play. And when you run, you can return to this kind of play. George Sheehan once wrote, “There are as many reasons for running as there are days in the year. But I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint.” Find your own play, and you will become the person you are meant to be.
32. It’s okay to walk. Just like the child, run for a while, then walk for a while. Smell the roses. Look for the robin’s nest. Feel the soft earth compress beneath each footfall. Run some more. Keep at it for 30 minutes. Call it a training session. Call it being alive.
33. Running helps you sleep better. Recent national health statistics have shown an alarming downward trend in the average amount of sleep we’re all getting. Alarming, because this can only lead to lower productivity, more accidents and more disease. But running can help. A 1998 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine concluded that exercise could be used to help people with sleep disorders. Hit the road regularly, and try to hit your pillow for eight hours a night.
34. Running makes you smarter. We first started to report this research more than a decade ago. That first study has produced a steady stream of follow-ups, all concluding that running is good for the brain. The most recent update is that, in late December, Japanese researchers found that a 12-week running programme significantly improved the reaction times and memory skills of their subjects.
35. Running makes your baby smarter. It sounds amazing, but this was the conclusion of a study conducted a few years ago at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Head researcher Dr James Clapp found that the five-year-old children of women who had exercised during pregnancy scored significantly higher on an IQ test than the children of women who had remained sedentary through their pregnancy.
36. Running gives you several recycling outlets. You can donate your old T-shirts and shoes to an organisation that collects them (a number of charities will collect). We’ve even heard from an organisation that uses old foil ‘space blankets’ to help stimulate severely disabled children.
37. Running shoes make your feet happy Running shoes are about the most comfortable and healthy footwear that you can buy. Your feet are the foundation to your body, so be kind to them. Wear running shoes on and off the roads.
38. Running is the core fitness activity for most other sports. Whether you want to climb Mount Everest (like blind marathoner Eric Weihenmayer) or score the goal that secures England’s World Cup qualification (like David Beckham, who was once a county-standard runner), running is the place to begin. Running makes you better at other sports.
39. Running is full of great quotes From the Bible, the great poets and thinkers, to the modern-day rockers and plenty of others. The all-time greatest running quote, according to Mark Will-Weber, author of The Quotable Runner, is “Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible.” (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)
40. Every run is a journey You never know what you’ll find. You don’t know who or what you’ll see, or even more interesting what thoughts might flash into your mind. Today’s run could change your life in a way that you could never have imagined when you were lacing up your shoes.