Let appreciativeness be the secret weapon to get you through any run.
I was running on the Appalachian Trail in a rainstorm that had shown passing on the radar. As I ran along, I began to grumble about the conditions and the slipperiness of the trail.
As I listened to my audible and inaudible groaning, I stopped. Right in the middle of the trail, I just stopped and yelled at myself. “Do you know how many people would love to be moving like you are right now?”
I took my glasses cloth out of the plastic bag I keep it in, wiped my glasses, and silently whispered, “thank you!”
Being thankful for the opportunity to run isn’t a new revelation, and I hope it never is.
My hope is to be able to run everyday. Running fills me with a sense of thankfulness. I treasure the opportunity to not just be physically able to run but to also to see the beauty in nature that so many are not able to experience.
G.K. Chesterton, in his essay, A Short History of England(1917), wrote, “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”
It is with this type of thanks I lace up my shoes and go running. You would be amazed what happens when you just take one mile off focusing on setting the new land speed record and instead, be grateful.
Join the Gratitude Mile Club
I first heard about this whole concept of instituting a gratitude mile into your runs when struggling to come back from inner ear surgery in 2018.
After six weeks of no exertion because of surgery to my inner ear, I found myself unable to sustain running even one mile after three or four weeks. Most of my “runs” were actually just walks!
I talked to a friend about the frustration, and she emailed me an article from Women’s Running by Allie Burdick. As I first read, “Can Gratitude Make You a Better Runner?” I was filled with hope.
I read with excitement Maureen Gillespie’s keynote speech for the Psychology and Neuroscience commencement ceremony at the University of New Hampshire. Simply titled “Gratitude” and posted on the Harrier and Hounds website, the line, “I was grateful for the opportunity to finish a race that gives you so many reasons to want to quit.” was familiar to me.
The reason it was familiar was that I often feel incredibly thankful when I finish a race or difficult run, no matter if I finish Dead Fricking Last (DFL).
Somewhere along the trails running, I lost that sense of appreciation for the ability to run. I got caught up in trying to get faster, be stronger, and accumulate impressive stats. Reading both of these pieces gave me the glimmer of hope that I could rehab and make it back, but first, I needed to change my attitude.
So, I resolved to change my attitude about running.
Every time I set out for a run now, I make sure there is at least one mile out of every run that I don’t think about pace, gait, distance, or any of the other myriads of statistics one can think about while running.
I make sure that there is at least one mile where I concentrate on being thankful. I thank my creator that as I approach sixty, I’m still able to get out and run insane distances for insane amounts of time.
There are many forms of the gratitude mile, and even more came out during the 2020 lockdown period. The key is to take a mile and look beyond the statistics for what you can be thankful for.
Pre-plan a mile stretch that you’re just going to concentrate on situations and people that bring you a sense of gratefulness. I like to take a mile of every run and inwardly express thankfulness for a friend or colleague. Often, this ends up being my wife.
When I’m going through a rough patch during an ultra-marathon, taking my mind off the pain often involves thinking of someone or something I am grateful for and then concentrating on that rather than the pain and discomfort.
Gratitude Creates a Spring In Your Step
The keynote speech by Gillespie, noted above, has a ton of research about the effect of gratitude on our life.
This paragraph from her speech is one I carry with me during races or particularly tough training runs. I can take it out and re-wire my brain, so I’m not so focused on being in the pain cave.
“Research has also focused on not just experiencing the emotion of gratitude, but the trait of being a grateful person and its relationship to well-being. Wood and colleagues found that people who score higher on scales measuring how often and how intensely they feel gratitude tend to handle stress and setbacks better. More grateful people tend to use more positive coping strategies like seeking out emotional support from others and planning for the future and use fewer negative coping strategies like substance abuse, blame, and denial when faced with obstacles.”
It is better than anything I have found while running ultra-marathons as I allow my mind to drift into gratitude and gratefulness. I know that physically it’s probably not true, but mentally I am filled with a renewed energy and purpose.
I remember coming up the final hill during the JFK 50 Miler in November 2020. As tears filled my eyes, I was alive with gratitude for the opportunity to run this race in particular, but also that I had been strengthened after severely twisting my ankle at mile 16.
For 35 miles of the JFK race, I just kept repeating words of gratitude. I’d think of things I was thankful for, from the mundane to the big ones. Even when I was running with other people, I would suddenly burst out with a gratitude statement. They’d look at me weird, but I didn’t care.
“I’m grateful for my wife and her accepting that I am insane and desire to run long distances for long amounts of time.”
“I’m thankful for that chicken broth. It tasted like a gourmet meal.”
“I’m thankful that one of my ankles feels great!” You should have seen the look on the guy’s face I was running with at the last aid station when I said that out loud!
Gratitude will get you through a lot of things. Developing this as a habit just may be the secret sauce that brings us all through this race called life.
Find something to be thankful for on your next run and test to see if it works for you or not. I’m willing to bet you’ll be thankful that you read this article and developed an attitude of gratitude.