A Perfect Insanity

A certain group of people, athletes rather, have come to my attention of having reached a state of mind characteristic of their own category. As athletes, they are different than others in work ethic, commitment, relation to their sport, and the undeniable bonds with their colleagues. As people, society could quite adequately label them as "insane." However, these monumental trailblazers in the areas of physical, psychological, and spiritual fitness have achieved perfection in self expression through sport. This particular and peculiar category of athletes are known as simply yet summatively:
Runners.

Running as a sport is neither exciting, money-making, or particularly popular in the all-too-common Football worshipping countries of today's "modern and advanced" world in which, simply, money IS everything. Sad I am to say most people have not the ability to see past the glamour, fortune, and luxuries usually seen with the celebrity/athlete caste of the materialistic hierachy, as recorded in tabloids next to Britney's slip up of the month. In sum, the running sport is pointless, dull and not beneficial in most ways.

However, participants of the sport drudge on through the hard commitment of constant training and complete balance of nutrition and bodily care. To what aim, purpose, goal, or objective do these "crazy" people strive?

To understand their higher level of thinking, one must cease to consider the idea of running as a sport. Running is different than any other in that it is a complete, transcendental lifesyle. It changes its athletes( if they can even be called that, considering we think of running as life not sport) and allows them to transcend the limits of material rewards others enjoy for their sports. They rise to a level of euphoria, a sort of natural high, rare and unique to the style of living. There are those who walk the middle path(in moderation), attempting to balance normal life and the runner's lifestyle, but these aren't quite the breed of runner the other portion is. Those who fully surrender to the transformation to "insanity" become perfectly adept at surpassing limits, restrictions, and expectations. They are perfect in showing their emotions in their runs, and can escape the troubles of the down to earth life(stress from school, work, struggling emotions, etc.). All chains to a stressful, unfair, and criminally lax life melt away as the runner drifts into a mental paradise.

This is their underlying philosophy, key to better living, secret of everlasting life that drives, pushes, and controls runners lives, who truly live more than any other.

I believe that in joining these remarkable individuals I have learned to better myself as a person physically and psychologically. That I have broken free from the shackles of mediocracy pulling me down to earth. That, as part of this new and ever expanding family that I have come to love and cherish with all heart, I shed my former self and spread my wings, joining those in flight above people of the norm.

I cannot express adequately how much I am both grateful to running and those who helped me in my endeavours. To those who continue to make me desire to be part of the crazy, hectic lifestyle of the perfect "athlete" I bid good fortune to you and your family for many generations to come. For it is you that makes me proud to say in the face of the always cruel, shunning world:

I am a runner.
I am perfectly insane.


Always yours,
Jordan Buencamino