Authenticity, Fitness and Body Joy
Apr. 7th, 2011 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabrinamariMy dear friend ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pagandelight posted this as a locked post on his livejournal, but has graciously allowed me to repost it here, with a few small changes. It exquisitely captures the links between fitness and authenticity:
I came across a great article by ultramarathon runner Anton Krupicka yesterday called, On Being Real: Distilling the essence of why I run trails. http://www.runningtimes.com/Print.aspx?articleID=22172
This captures so much of what I feel about running beyond fitness — that through such intense physical exertion and endurance, the external trappings and stories fall away, and the rawness of self can be touched — if only briefly. I don't run ultras (and don't know if I really would want to), but I do run long distances and in nature whenever possible, and Anton nails it on the head.
A couple of quotes from the article:
“Daily, I want to live an authentic life — one that feels real and true — and the most trusted authenticity and beauty I know of is the kind that is found in the mountains and the natural world in general.”
“Each time I get out in the mountains and run to a summit I am entering a creative space where what I am creating is not something material but rather a singular and unique experience relative to my strengths, weaknesses, situation and previous experience-base, and as such each run in the mountains is an invaluable opportunity for learning, growth and creative self-expression.”
“Running as much as I do is a lifestyle, and racing with others is a celebration of that lifestyle, a public and collaborative expression of the thousands of hours spent honing a specific craft and art. Without the consistency and discipline of my daily running ritual, however, these depths would never be accessible, so in the mundane habit is where the true work is done.”
“While exquisitely painful, this latter scenario embodies that most primal of activities: simply charging through the woods at my personal apogee of effort until there are no more woods to charge through because I've finally reached the top. In this painful primality, however, my being is reduced and refined to its most authentic state — there is no pretending and, unlike Howard Campbell, Jr., no one would ever be able to mistaken me for something I’m not."
Word.
pagandelight posted this as a locked post on his livejournal, but has graciously allowed me to repost it here, with a few small changes. It exquisitely captures the links between fitness and authenticity:I came across a great article by ultramarathon runner Anton Krupicka yesterday called, On Being Real: Distilling the essence of why I run trails. http://www.runningtimes.com/Print.aspx?articleID=22172
This captures so much of what I feel about running beyond fitness — that through such intense physical exertion and endurance, the external trappings and stories fall away, and the rawness of self can be touched — if only briefly. I don't run ultras (and don't know if I really would want to), but I do run long distances and in nature whenever possible, and Anton nails it on the head.
A couple of quotes from the article:
“Daily, I want to live an authentic life — one that feels real and true — and the most trusted authenticity and beauty I know of is the kind that is found in the mountains and the natural world in general.”
“Each time I get out in the mountains and run to a summit I am entering a creative space where what I am creating is not something material but rather a singular and unique experience relative to my strengths, weaknesses, situation and previous experience-base, and as such each run in the mountains is an invaluable opportunity for learning, growth and creative self-expression.”
“Running as much as I do is a lifestyle, and racing with others is a celebration of that lifestyle, a public and collaborative expression of the thousands of hours spent honing a specific craft and art. Without the consistency and discipline of my daily running ritual, however, these depths would never be accessible, so in the mundane habit is where the true work is done.”
“While exquisitely painful, this latter scenario embodies that most primal of activities: simply charging through the woods at my personal apogee of effort until there are no more woods to charge through because I've finally reached the top. In this painful primality, however, my being is reduced and refined to its most authentic state — there is no pretending and, unlike Howard Campbell, Jr., no one would ever be able to mistaken me for something I’m not."
Word.
