What is Running with Fortitude?

Running and life go hand in hand. If you have been a runner for awhile, you know what I am talking about. If you are just a beginner, you will soon find that the more you get into running, the more it becomes a lifestyle. It has a ripple effect on literally every aspect of your life.  I have coined this feeling as: Running Life or simply, R.L.  

I do not just live and I do not just run, I do both.  As runners, we come to experience that running holds life’s key secrets and when it is taken away either temporarily or permanently, it can be detrimental to our happiness and how we apply ourselves.  This hand in hand relationship between life and running causes us to feel as though if running is not working out, then life is not either and vice versa. In order to gather the full experience of R.L. one must have the trait of fortitude.

Fortitude means to have courage in the face of adversity and pain. Although most of us know that R.L. throws thousands of curve balls, we seem to be conditioned by society that this journey is not supposed to hurt, that we are supposed to make huge leaps in short periods of time and that getting to an elite level is simple. Well, guess what? It's never simple and it is hard ... and it always will be.


However, the moment we stop being complacent and start pushing ourselves to greater heights and standards, the happier we will be. With fortitude under your belt, you can prepare for any battle whether it be fighting through an injury, plowing through mental blocks, learning new methods and techniques, or creating higher goals.  It is important to understand that you might not win all the time but at least you went in fighting. I hope you know that you are not alone in any of these battles, someone has been through them (sometimes twice), is going through them or will go through them. So let us collaborate together so that we may all learn to run and live with fortitude.