The PR High

 Racing at a competitive level is a very mentally and physically taxing activity, and so people, and often runners ourselves, wonder why we race/run the way we do. But it is true what they say, the endorphin given off seem to give you a "runner's high", and though we often get frustrated and tiered during the workout, the feeling and pride of completing a hard and effective workout is all worth it in the end, well... most of the time. For my teammates and I, and I am assuming many other runners around the world, finishing a good workout that we know will help us in our training or with our health and fitness gives us the feeling of  accomplishment and happiness. My teammates and I always count down the reps out loud during an interval workout or the miles in a long run because we know that we can all celebrate that one step closer to the end of a great workout. We always feel pretty good afterword (even if we simultaneously feel like it wouldn't be so horrible if we just dropped to the ground and didn't move for a few days because of the fatigue).

While the runner's high feels pretty good on a normal day at practice, there is honestly nothing that can beat the feeling of getting a personal record for a  race. For cross country, when you have been pushing your body to the limit for the last 18-25+ minutes of a 5k and you finally cross the finish line to see that you have finally broken 22 minutes, or finally beaten your record from the questionably-short meet last year, it feels awesome to say the least. It is often hard to feel the motivation during the race to push forth and give it all you've got in the last mile of a race, but if you can just think forward to the promise of a PR (personal record) you might, just maybe, find the motivation deep in you to give it just 2% more. Because honestly, nobody puts their body through that much stress and pain for fun. Nobody. And I hate to say this for the fear of making runners everywhere seem vain, but when we sprint across the finish line, or at least whatever a "sprint" is for us after racing the last few miles, we do it for the glory and the feeling of self worth and success that comes with finishing a strong race for ourselves, whether we are in the back of the pack or leading the race.