I have made a running essay that i have compiled up to my feelings and thoughts. It is a pretty long essay, and i would like to know what youre opinion on it is. I do have some grammar errors and spellings mistakes, but this isn't the final final draft. i sitll have like 1-2 moonths till ii turn it in. so please enjoy and give me some feedback. Thank you.
The Feeling
By Mike Oh
Never was it for ribbons, medals, trophies, or concrete awards. Nor was it to get fame, attention, and those 15 minutes in the spotlight. However, these attributed to ?The Feeling.? Mirages on the horizon; the pavement blistering enough you could fry an egg, while the perspiration perspired trickles down the chin and lands in a single continuum of droplets sizzle on to the boiling black tar while our heels pound away. This?is known as ?The Feeling?. Freezing temperatures nipping at our skin while out on a midnight stroll in 15 degree weather, only to come back paralyzed, unable to move even the eyelids, and the sweat freezes on you?re face leaving a white snowy glow to you?re skin. The only athlete which trains everyday as if it depended on the simple question of life or death is the runner. This is ?The Feeling?.
Sitting in class, the car, the comfy sofa, the coffee shop, the balloon ride, day in and day out where running is on the mind. Facts, figures, numbers, times, are all blotched with fingerprints and paper wrinkles as if they had gone through ages of sifting through when in reality it hasn?t been too long since we printed them out. It?s knowing the fact of four ovals do not equal a full mile, but is actually short of eight measly meters. To the non-runner this maybe like the fact of Hawaii only containing one school district. But to the runner this is the factor between the great time and the mediocre achievement. Books and magazines are crested and spilling out the runners rack, and bookshelves. This is because the runner is seeking literary comprehension to reestablish relation to running, memories, and fantasies even when not running. This is ?The Feeling?.
The arrogant remarks or cackle surfacing around about why we run, or this physical pain is not a sport makes the runner sick to their stomach or it is pure humorous at their idiocy with such ?crude? comments. The laughter heard while on an easy 10 miler by a cigarette-wielding slob emit an ignorant comment as he drives by in his ozone-depleting motive of transportation. This is ?The Feeling?. By the words of John L. Parker it?s the countless ?miles of trials, trials of miles? we log day in and day out regardless of environmental factors, or any hurdle along the way. It?s the sacrifice in practices where we round this oval track with the football players gazing and scrutinizing our efforts. For they don?t have any clue why we participate to achieve this ?The Feeling?. This is ?The Feeling?.
The track workout maybe one of the most dreaded workouts, only because of the intensity it brings upon the challenge of physical and mental barriers. It?s this rounding of the oval on the twelfth 400 meter sprint repeat or the climbing of the mile hill mountain workout where our muscles and throats scream in a raspy sandy fiery shock telling the runner to stop. Begging on wounded knees with a blurred vision while the heart is pounding away like a hummingbird flapping its wings for us to heed and slow down. However the mentality of the runner is much stronger than that. As we all know ?whatever does not kill me, can only make me stronger.? During races everything is on the grey scale except the uniforms of rivals where they are like sharp vibrant targets needing to be pinned down and trampled over just as a stampede of gazelle is running away from the ferocious lion; their predator. Strategy lies in every race because of the environmental twists and turns of the courses. From the first sight the decision has already been made by the runner. The decision is contemplated whether to play the course out as a friend or an enemy behind the lines ready to pull you down, but in the end there is only one choice: to run your heart out. During the race Coaches, fans, teammates, and rivals yell lyrical limericks through the air and add fire to the furnace to go at a faster pace. The hazy view, the crazy thoughts that go on during the race. ?Why one is foolish enough to exert oneself to this much physical pain.? Near the end of the race, there may be few stragglers that could be plowed down and it?s a decision that must be made with haste. By this point acid is stock piling up like in the muscles and it is working against the runner. Lactic acid is the slow motion button of the running world. What seems like days the last part if raced correctly is seen in frames of movement. Each muscle slitting arm pump, each leg stride, each breathe of lack lusted energy fights against the runner. But in the end the effort is well rewarded or it is another tragedy that must be tallied in to ones loss ratio on their little table they keep track of in their hearts, souls, and feelings. This is ?The Feeling?.
Despite the normal routine many might have; wake up, brush teeth, skip breakfast, arrive at school. The morning to the runner is another beautiful portrait to be painted by a run at the butt crack of dawn. Throughout the day we feel fresh, clean, and vivid to take on challenges that are presented upon us. After even the simplest workout our heads and eyes grow heavy even when the need of homework has to be accomplished. Yet the runner maintains one of the highest academic grade points through any athlete. Is it because all runners are birthed with intellectual minds or is it because of the real life efforts and dedication we face through the running we are naturally gifted in academics (or vice versa)? Muscles are constantly sore, not just the little soreness left behind a day of snowboarding but the soreness in which is buried beneath muscles down to the marrow of the bone; this pleasure striking each and every day. Waking up with regrets by the physical hurt, droopy eyes, we do it. We do it nevertheless of negative remarks, physical, mental barriers, and money costing time. We do it. All of this because of the so called ?feeling.? It is throughout our regular routine motorists are attracted to clip us and make us suffer. Although not intentional, it is a very tedious delicate task we must face in order to live with another limb. But sometimes also intentional for only the thought surfaces of why runners are despised so much. Is it because normal everyday citizens of their busy lives fail their New Years resolutions and submit all their anger toward us for their misfortunes? Is it because we love what we do and it is too painful to see us smile even on a 15 mile over distance run? The question will always remain and will never be resolved. This is ?The Feeling?.
Relations, friendships, and bonds are created among teammates and become maybe even the very best of friends. Maybe it?s because we realize the powers each other possess and the mentality because the sport is so demanding in what it has to offer. Whether it be chilling at one?s house, doing the craziest stuff such as running shirtless in the snowy days, and those bus rides filled with much memories. Runners must be one of the craziest humans to roam the earth. We spend time running. Whether it be crazy as to do another workout with team mates, visiting cemeteries at night in which crest the name of past school principles, or just setting the brownie eating record of 31 after four plates of food at a local buffet. We are crazy. The true friendship is created among the grim faces we put on before every workout. After all this sport is co-ed! This is ?The Feeling?.
So far it has seemed as though the runner lives a fabricated swell painless lifestyle, many might (like the Gallow Walkers or subscribers to the 50+ age intended Runner?s World with topics focusing around shortcuts and weight loss) but the true runner deals with anguish, resentment and pride. Sometimes goals are a good thing. A bad thing. And just because we think or write them down doesn?t mean we do it. By setting high goals the body is forced to physical walls with more chances (like Russian roulette at most) to get injured taking out seasons, making one depressed, and hopeless. Not meeting daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals depresses the runner because of all the hard work has not yet achieved the promises we wanted. But after these type of sessions we continue to work harder, sweating, breathing, eating, living running. The fact of not running depresses the runner and is a big deal for the truly dedicated. But we still do it taking a gamble because without hard work, top times will never be achieved. This is ?The Feeling?.
Running can be related to life in many ways. Sacrifice, dedication, passion, and vision. All of this the non-runner will never face. Real life lessons are taught through running. Pain, patience, perseverance, and wanting. The non-runner will never truly understand what it means to be a runner. They may pick up running as cross training for another sport, but that is like merely putting Swiss cheese on a pasta dish when it?s supposed to be parmesan. The feeling will never be the same. This may have been the good the bad or the ugly essay, but it is really difficult to describe the passion of running. The English language limits me to writing with such passion as I feel about running. Even the great Shakespeare would have a difficult time writing a composition of the passion in which is dealt with running. For even Shakespeare was a runner. Crazy as it may seems, running is the top priority in my life, I love it more than anything else. Maybe even the female gender. Maybe that is what the great Japanese Marathoner Toshikeko Seko means by ?Running is my girlfriend.? This is what running will do to you. Now do you understand ?The Feeling??