Addicted to Running

Howard Becker’s pot user study illuminates a psychological construct that almost all of us partake in: addictive behavior. In fact, the pot is not addictive, but the act, the social buzz, and the rewards are addicting. I’d like to expound upon my mother’s running addiction, and I’m going to do so as if I was trying to explain it to her!

When I was born, my mother took up running. She gradually built up her miles until she did her first marathon. Then, she started running marathons across the country, excelling in all of them. Eventually, she got bored of running 26.2 miles. She began running 50 mile races…and then 100 mile races. Ironically, she just texted me after finishing “The Bear 100” in Park City, Utah with “33 hours and 8 minutes”, her finishing time. She has an irrefutable addiction, but it most definitely is not the physical act of running that fuels this addictive nature.

After my birth, my mother felt a sense of emptiness as a new mother in a new town, so she took up running. She developed a passion for the sport and soon she was meeting other subjects like her who shared that passion. From my position, I can’t quite understand her addiction, because I myself am not a runner. From her position, she understands running and running understands her, and the same goes for the friends who she runs with. My mother craves the sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing 100 miles. I don’t crave it because I haven’t ever partaken in an ultramarathon (the proper term for 50/100 mile races). Her addiction to running is no different than the pothead’s addiction to pot. She is addicted to the results and rewards of using: the friends, the medals, the reward of finishing.