George A. Sheehan
George A. Sheehan
George A. Sheehanwas a physician, senior athlete and author best known for his writings about the sport of running. His book, "Running & Being: The Total Experience," became a New York Times best seller. He was a track star in college, and later became a cardiologist like his father. He served as a doctor in the United States Navy in the South Pacific during World War II on the destroyer USS Daly. He married Mary Jane Fleming and they raised...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth5 November 1918
CountryUnited States of America
People begin running for any number of motives, but we stick to it for one basic reason-to find out who we really are.
The key then is to find your own mountain, otherwise you will be competing with people who are not even in your event, and running up against the 'shoulds' and 'oughts' of that world, and the inevitable frustration and depression and feelings of failure. A person can be complete or incomplete, but one thing is sure, he cannot be someone else.
If marathoners finish they win.
To make your life a work of art, you must have the material to work with. The race, any race, is just such an experience.
On the roads, I can see truth revealed whole without thought or reason. There I experience the sudden understanding that comes unasked, unbidden. I simply rest, rest within myself, rest within the pure rhythm of my running. And I wait.
Have you ever felt worse after a run?
I run each day to preserve the self I attained the day before and to secure the self yet to be.
Like everyone else, I want to be challenged. I want to find out whether or not I am a coward. I want to see how much effort I can put out . . . what I can endure . . . if I measure up. Running allows that.
There are as many reasons for running as there are days in a year.... But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child.
Running makes you an athlete in all areas of life...trained in the basics, prepared for whatever comes, ready to fill each hour and deal with the decisive moment.
Fitness is just a stage you pass through on the way to becoming a racer.
We who run...are different from those who merely study us. We are out there experiencing what they are trying to put into words.
Running is just such a monastery- a retreat, a place to commune with God and yourself, a place for psychological and spiritual renewal.
And while these pounds were being shed, while the physiological miracles were occurring with the heart and muscle and metabolism, psychological marvels were taking place as well. Just so, the world over, bodies, minds, and souls are constantly being born again, during miles on the road.