Cadence
The cadence of running is meditative.
But meditation can be contention.
Because meditation is not something to grab. It does not sit still while you work on it. It is something to contend with, to wrestle with, to struggle against.
It is a process of mastering the inner voices, the weakness of the mind. The stray thoughts, the doubts, the insecurities. The distraction of comfort. The taste we all have for easy.
Running is meditation. Each of the thousands of steps must be fought for, each step requires a mind that ignores easy. Each mile gained can only be gained by struggle against the internal dialogue.
Running is truly a test of a man’s spirit. It’s an examination of everything he desires to be, and everything he has so far done to achieve that vision. It is invasive. The test exposes flaws in the machine.
Physical weaknesses, yes. Mental flaws, too.
Most notably impatience.
How easily impatience is exposed by the meditative cadence of running.
For a man to endure the test—even one of only a few miles—he must decide to be uncomfortable, and to sit in the discomfort. Alone in his head. Only pavement, or dirt, or track. Every step is an opportunity to break the cadence, to allow discomfort to overcome desire.
The internal dialogue prefers something else, something easier, something that is not so damn long.
Contend. Wrestle. Struggle.
Endurance is not a mile marker, a pace, or a time. Endurance is man’s ability to be alone with his thoughts in discomfort, and to reach the objective. To contend, wrestle, and struggle against the internal dialogue that claws at the mind for something easier.
Endurance is showing up again, exposing our weaknesses to the grind, allowing goals and ambitions to beat back the lure of an easy life, a life untested.
There is no test like thousands of steps on pavement. Monotonous and breathless. Sometimes slow. Every moment another opportunity to quit.
But on the other side of those thousands of steps lives a man unbeaten, a man unafraid. A man who can silence the doubts, the excuses, the little voices that whisper “quit.” Out there, running shoes laced up, and everywhere else.
The man who embraces the challenges of running transcends his peers, his adversaries, and himself. There is only upward momentum, when the cadence becomes a piece of his routine.
Mind, body, spirit, and will. All aligned. All fighting for one more step. All aware of the consequences of quit. All eager for the consequences of finish.
Leave a comment