Every Run Matters

— Michael Pfliger, Sports Editor

I like running. When people hear this they usually ask, “Why? Why would you want to do that for fun?”

The answer I usually give is, ‘I don’t know, it’s fun.’ The real answer is running gives me a way to explore who I am as a person and it gives me uninterrupted time to think and problem solve. Now, when it’s an easy run, I look at my pace and I think back to 7th grade me and how excited I would be to run at a 7:00 mile pace in a race, let alone an easy run and to get to this place.

It wasn’t easy. Getting to this place took years of hard work, where I thought about giving up. But it takes consistency to see improvement. Years and years of consistency every day and asking myself how badly I want to achieve my goals. Because if I want it bad enough and put in the work to get there I will achieve my goals.

I know that if I skip a run because I don’t feel like it then there are at least 5 other guys who didn’t skip their run that day and those 5 guys could take my spot in a race. Them taking my spot could make that runner be looked at by colleges. Now those colleges won’t look at me anymore and it would all be because I skipped that run.

That’s what keeps me motivated to run for sometimes hours at a time. It keeps me motivated to run when it’s 100 outside or when it’s -15 and windy because it doesn’t matter if it’s raining, snowing or windy.

I’m gonna put in that work. It’s like they say, if you ain’t going to put in the work, someone else will.

In high school sports, where everything is so highly contested, every rep on a workout matters. Every run matters because that run could be the difference between me making or not making state. Just running doesn’t make a great runner, it’s the little things that matter too. Stretching, nutrition, recovery, sleep, and weights; these all come together to improve athletes outside of just their sport practice.

Sometimes it gets hard and I consider stopping, but then I have a run where I feel amazing and get to remember why I do this everyday for fun. I do it because I want to and I told myself that if I ever went on a streak of a couple months where I truly didn’t enjoy running, I would stop and hang up my shoes.

But that day hasn’t come yet and I hope it doesn’t come for a while because I truly love what I do. The best part is I get to do it everyday with some of my best friends. I’ve made some lifelong friends that I will never forget because of running.