For most of my life as a runner I have also been an active racer. For many years it didn’t even occur to me that you could be a runner if you didn’t also race. As recently as 4 years ago I almost always had a race planned at some point in the coming weeks.
Over these past 4 years though, in large part due to health issues which limited my ability to run and/or race for much of 2012 and all of 2013, I have come to realize that there is a whole another world of running that has absolutely nothing to do with racing.
This might seem like a very obvious observation, and to someone from a different background I’m sure it is. To me though, with such a prominent background in competitive running that began in 7th grade and allowed me twenty years later to be one of the few professional ultrarunners in the world, this really is something that has taken me a few years to begin to understand and appreciate.
When I was racing on a regular basis, nearly every runner I knew was also racing on a regular basis, and it was easy for me to assume that this was what nearly all runners did. Slowly though, as I have raced less, I have come to know dozens, or likely even hundreds of runners who have no regular plans or desires to race. What once seemed like a totally alien concept to me has come to make perfect sense.
I used to find it hard to motivate myself to run unless I had an event that I was training for. I ran to be in as good of shape as possible so that I could perform at as high of a level as possible on a given day that was on the horizon in my future. This was a great carrot always dangling out in front of me to keep me motivated. This kept me very satisfied and active as a runner for many years.
Over time though I started to have occasional race experiences where things just didn’t go as I had imagined they would. Everyone has a bad race now and again, but as I raced often enough to have had more than just a few of these bad races I started to wonder if it was really worth all the training and preparation simply to prepare for one specific day. Not that I didn’t want to race at all anymore, but what if instead of running primarily to prepare for races I simply ran because I really enjoy running and then race every now and again because I just happen to be in shape from running all the time. Effectively the same thing, but with a different perspective.
I made this perspective change gradually throughout the course of 2009 and 2010. For most of 2010-2012 I still raced regularly, only with this different approach. In the later part of 2012 I virtually stopped racing altogether though. Since then I have run less than a half dozen races, and not a single one that I ran with a 100-percent race focus and effort. Running has become something almost completely different for me now. Something that has nothing to do with racing.
Often times I am eager to run to get myself in better shape to be able to do more runs in the future. This is of course fairly similar to the motivation to train to prepare for a race, only much more flexible because the runs I am preparing for don’t need to be on a specific day, and don’t need to include other people.
Other times I am eager to run for the social aspect. I have lots of friends who are runners and once of my favorite ways to spend time with people is out on a trail in the mountains. When I am not actively training for a race I find it much easier and much more relaxing to do these “social runs”.
Sometimes I like to run to clear my mind or process thoughts that are bouncing around in my head that I’m having a hard time working through. This is all certainly possible in the midst of training for races, but I have found it to be much easier to do when I don’t have a specific training plan in mind that is structured around an upcoming race.
More than anything though I like to run for the simple ritual that is getting out in nature and moving my body in a simple yet efficient manner. I like moving through the forests and achieving ridgelines with dramatic views. I like feeling my muscles burn with fatigue and my lungs and heart struggling to keep them supplied with the oxygen to keep pushing onward.
I like running. Not only because it gets me in shape to run a particular race; not only because I have friends who run a lot; and not only because it is a great way to process thoughts. I simply like the basic act of running. I have come to realize that I like it so much that not only does it make sense to me to be a runner and not a racer, but that the notion of racing almost seems alien to me now. Much the same way that the thought of being a runner who didn’t race once was.
It’s likely I will race again in the future, and I don’t regret any of the racing that I have done in the past, but moving further away from racing has done so much to help me more fully understand running and why I really partake in it. This has also helped me to be able to better understand the countless runners I know who do not race.
There are certainly a lot of reasons to race, and a lot of benefit and satisfaction that can come out of doing so, but there are also a lot of reasons and a lot of benefit and satisfaction in being a runner who isn’t also a racer. Despite not having a single race planned in my future I’m as excited as ever to get out the door and go for a run.
• Geoff Roes lives and runs trails in Juneau. He has run more than 40 mountain, ultra, and trail running races all over the world – winning the majority of them. He is the founder and director of the Juneau based Alaska Mountain Ultrarunning Camp. He can be reached at grroes@yahoo.com and more of his insights can be found on his personal website www.akrunning.blogspot.com. He is also a regular contributor at www.irunfar.com. “Running Wild” will appear in the Juneau Empire every other Friday.
