Running is Bad for You

‘Running is bad for you.’ – a man told me yesterday. I’ve actually heard this once before. So I wasn’t surprised or caught off guard when he said it. I actually think it’s a little funny. But let’s talk about it… what do you say when someone tells you ‘running (or whatever sport you like to do) is bad for you’?

I’ll go first

Let me start off by saying this is a very nice older man. He’s volunteering at the church food pantry, so I’m fairly certain he’s not a jerk. He said it in a conversational way. So, I wasn’t upset or defensive at all. I know he’s not the only person who thinks this.

Coincidentally, the first person who told me ‘running is bad for you, hard on the knees you know…’ was an older gentleman too. And again, he said it nicely. I don’t really mind kind people my grandma’s age telling me what they think is good or bad. They do have more wisdom than me 99.9% of the time.

Back to yesterday…

I don’t remember how it came up, but I told him I run. He asked me a few questions about it and inquired ‘how much did you run today?’

I said 6 miles and he asked if I run that much everyday.

‘Actually, I ran 10 yesterday. I run a lot…’ I let my answer trail off because I realize that most people think that much running is crazy.

Then he asked me if I was worried about running that much being bad for me. He said his daughter-in-law has knee problems from running. He said it can hurt me and I won’t realize it for a long time… he trailed off too waiting for me to see the error of my ways.

I said I wasn’t worried about it. I’m good about listening to my body. But he was fairly persistent, as people with a strong opinion tend to be.

So I said, “Well, you gotta find what you love and let it kill you.”

It’s one of my favorite quotes. But it totally surprised him. It definitely got the conversation away from why running is bad for me!

I had to explain to him it’s a quote and it got us onto another topic. He wasn’t trying to talk me out of running, he genuinely felt like it can be bad for you. I wasn’t worried about it because something a stranger randomly tells me isn’t going to change how I live my life (unless that stranger is J.Lo and in that case I’d do whatever she said).

I just wanted to share because part of me does realize that running is hard on your body. It is a lot of pounding on your joints – damn gravity. You can lose iron from red blood cells in your feet every time your foot strikes the ground. It can stress your adrenal system. There are other reasons too, but I think you get the point…

There are a lot of Pros and a few Cons to running. I’ll admit that.

But I love it. Not everything I love is going to be good for me (insert relationship joke here). I can choose to do it in moderation to manage the negative aspects or I can choose to go ‘all in’ and take the bad with the good. Sometimes I do ‘all in’ and someday I’ll do moderation.

It probably wouldn’t matter if a 12 year scientific study came out tomorrow that confirmed  “RUNNING IS BAD FOR YOU”

I’m going to do what I want to do.

It serves a purpose in my life by giving me…

a hobby, exercise, time to think and reflect, a job via writing about running, a way to burn calories to balance my pizza addiction, ‘me time’, energy and more.

I don’t think ‘running in moderation’ is bad for you. Maybe I would kinda sorta tiny bit agree that running super high distances can do some damage that could consider bad for you. But I don’t care. I am not in a place in my life where I want to practice moderation with running. I’m sure I will be in that place down the road, but today is not that day.

The entire Charles Bukowski quote:

“My dear,
Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness.
Let it kill you and let it devour your remains.For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it’s much better to be killed by a lover.”

Question: What’s your FAVORITE thing to do that’s bad for you?

(I swear if one of you doesn’t share something that is actually super bad I’m going to know you’re lying.)

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