Hard Work Beats Talent
Although running provides many short-term physical and mental benefits, it also provides lasting friendships (See post #2) as well as multiple long-term life lessons. One of these important lessons that I will touch on today is that running teaches young men and women is the value of hard work.
- Hard work beats talent
Most sports require hard work to get better, but I would argue that running is one of the sports where hard work most directly translates to better performance; in other words, you’re going to get out what you put in. That’s not to say that there are not naturally, genetically gifted runners (there are), but if you take someone who is an extremely talented runner that hasn’t trained in a month and an average runner who has been working extremely hard for a month, chances are the average runner will beat the more gifted runner. As opposed to sports like basketball or soccer where improvement is hard to measure (statistics sometimes don’t tell the whole story), running (and other cardiovascular activities) provide an objective way to gauge your improvement – by comparing previous times.
There are so many things beyond the actual physical action of running that contribute to becoming a faster runner. Whether it’s eating healthy to stretching to strength training to hydrating, a good runner is able to be well rounded in all facets of their training. And I won’t lie to you; it takes a lot of discipline and time to excel at all of the things that culminate into reaching your full running potential, but that’s why they call it “hard work.”
A runner who wants to improve cannot be lukewarm with his desire to get better either. If you don’t enjoy running or you aren’t motivated to become a better runner, it becomes much harder to surpass your goals and consistently hit the roads. It is because my teammates and I love hanging out with each other and truly love running that we went “all in.” Our shared love for running made it easy for us to improve because the hard work never felt that toilsome.
From the time I was a freshman, I loved the idea that my ceiling was determined by how dedicated I was to the sport, and I became obsessed with putting in the work. As a freshman who started off running a 20:30 5k to a senior who ran a 15:59, my improvement was not because I am an extremely gifted runner but because I didn’t ever stop training and I put in the work. Every single one of my teammates have had similar (or even greater) improvements because they embraced the daily “grind.”
In the same way, there are countless examples of gifted runners who didn’t take care of their bodies or who weren’t willing to push through the pain because they didn’t love the sport that much. Those runners quickly realize that all of the talent in the world will not make them faster if they’re not motivated to develop that talent. If running doesn’t bring you joy the same way it does for me, there is nothing “wrong,” with you, maybe you would enjoy doing a different sport that helps you stay in shape. It is important you give running a chance, though, because as you become in better shape, it feels less and less like an arduous chore and more like a form of relaxation.
Ultimately, running provides a great life lesson, teaching young athletes the value of hard work and dedication in an objective way.