The London Marathon and the pleasure of physical activity – 04/28/2023 – Marina Izidro

“Why would you do this to yourself?”, joked a friend when I told her that I had signed up for yet another street race. The greater the distance, the more the question makes sense.

Last Sunday (23), I followed the London Marathon very close to the finish line. Running 42km is not for beginners. There is a respect between those who are there. In the final stretch of the race, there was everything: those who ended up smiling, crying, so exhausted or cramped that they had to be carried, many raised their hands to the sky.

Having the “seal” of a marathon runner differentiates you as an amateur runner from everyone else. But this is more the consequence than the cause of “doing it with yourself” — training for months, following a spreadsheet, trying out shoes, courses, carbohydrate gel, giving up social life, suffering from pain. You can bet: those who run, especially long races, have a history that justifies being there, consciously or unconsciously.

Be it proving to yourself that you are capable of overcoming a great challenge, seeing that you can do more, seeking peace of mind, connecting with nature or something superior, among many other reasons.

Running appeared to me just over 15 years ago and has perfectly fit into my lifestyle. A journalist has no routine, and running is easy: you can practice at any time of the day or night and anywhere on the planet, all you need is good tennis shoes. When I turned 30, I was upset because I thought I was getting older (silly!) and I set goals to have an amazing year, including running a marathon.

It was the first and only time I ran the distance, in Paris. When I received the medal, I felt invincible. I thought, “now I can do anything.” It’s a really unique sense of achievement. I’ve done half marathons and shorter distances, and it’s different. At the moment, I run to keep fit, interspersing with other sports.

Why do I run? To have a healthy life and body. Those who decide to be sedentary will have an old age with more suffering – if they get there. Running makes me ready to face the day, my body works much better. It does a lot of good for the mind, it’s excellent for de-stressing, almost like therapy. It raises my self-esteem and also makes me see my limitations. It helps organize my thoughts and brings me inspiration. This morning, for example, I thought about how to write this column while running.

And since I love to eat, running evens out the calorie math.

I’ve been doing sports since I was a little girl, I was one of those kids who wanted to try everything (thanks for your patience, mom, dad!) and it became an addiction to good. I get cranky if I don’t exercise for more than three days in a row.

People make up all sorts of excuses for not doing physical activity – too much work, too little time… but they don’t feel guilty about spending hours with their eyes glued to their cell phones. Have you ever stopped to think that spending 1 hour a day on social media means throwing away the equivalent of 15 days of your life a year? Lying on the couch watching series on TV is really a delight, but the good “wave” of exercise, which hits hard when it ends, too. It is necessary to try, as much as possible, to choose the second option.

And it’s contagious. After seeing the happy smiles of so many people who completed the London Marathon, she wanted to train for one. I think the best answer to the question of “why do I run” would be: why wouldn’t I run?

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