As a freshman on my high school's cross country team, our captain told me that to be a good runner, you needed to love pain.<\/p>\n
I objected: a great runner could love to race<\/em>, I said, and endure the pain only for the sake of competing and winning.<\/p>\n It's only fifteen years later (practically one foot in the grave), that I now see that I was wrong<\/em> and he was right.<\/p>\n You can run out of habit or you can run because Coach would notice if you skip practice, but you cannot run because of the strictly instrumental effect<\/em> that not-running would have on your goals. Our minds aren't built that way; what is separable conceptually is not separable architecturally<\/em>.<\/p>\n Ultimately, to not sacrifice the gift, you have to love pain. You have to love life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a freshman on my high school's cross country team, our captain told me that to be a good runner, you needed to love pain. I objected: a great runner could love to race, I said, and endure the pain … Continue reading