"We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy in and cannot help ourselves . . . The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom."- Roger Bannister, The First Four Minutes
I love this quotation, which I came across on the first page of 'Running - the sacred art' by Dr Warren A Kay. I am in the earliest stages of becoming a runner, today I ran / walked 3.3 miles doing 6 minutes running followed by 1 minute walking. If I am honest, on a cold, blustery day, I was not really looking forward to running, and yet out I went and that sense of freedom to which Bannister refers was immediately mine. Strange really, as my pace, speed and possible distance are still limited, I ran on a familiar route, on suburban streets close to my home, yet I felt free. The freedom was not in my physical experience, but was wholly internal, I freed my spirit.
My work, as a priest in the Church of England, affords me a fair amount of freedom to organise my own schedule, but there is always far more to do than time to do it. Running could so easily be seen as a further pressure on an already stretched day, and yet making the time to get out and run allows me to enter a precious and otherwise inaccessible space from which I can return enlivened, calmed, enthused and although weary, spiritually rested. I can easily see that very soon this will be something that I do not as much because it is good for me but because I enjoy it and cannot help myself but to be free.
(Picture: Art Sculpture by Zenos Frudakis
Location:GSK World Headquarters16th and Vine Streets, Philadelphia, PA)
