As we are now into the fall marathon season, what follows is a description by German marathoner and author Manfred Steffny into what the sometimes forgotten benefits of being a marathon runner are,or for some,should be.Too often the mental,physical and spiritual benefits of our training are overlooked due to our preoccupation with achieving excellence.Steffney writes:
"Civilization,hand-in-hand with its readily available poisons, is robbing man of innumerable physical perceptions: of the sensation and internal feelings through limbs and organs. Nowadays we are aware of our insides only when they begin to hurt yet the body is man's greatest resource. The marathoner has his body well under control. This gives him a decided advantage in his life. He knows how much he can do physically, and in many ways he's able to transfer his athletic abilities into the occupational or private sphere.
He becomes skeptical about blind acceptance of the automation of our lives and he is wide awake to assaults on the enviroment. The marathoner is aware that his car can take him quickly into beautiful running country,but he also knows that the auto is the reason he doesn't like to run around his own block.
The marathon runner counts his capital not in houses and cars,but in the reserves of his own body. Rising health care costs tell even the man who's nailed fast to the dollar that he is wisest to let overtime and penny-pinching go in favor of investing a few hours in his body."
The above,written in 1977, reaffirms many of the truths taught by Percy Cerutty.
For those of us who live for the run, we should never forget them.
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