I Know Why You Run

Ask yourself this question: if you could take the trip of a lifetime, travel to the country you’ve always wanted to visit, experience great food, great people and great sights, you’d want to go right?

Now imagine that after the holiday is over you have no memory of it, none at all (no photos either). Would you still want to go?

I’d love to know your answer, drop me a line if you want to. What this question really digs into is the weight of importance we place on recalling events, and how we form memory. It also serves to answer the runner’s eternal query:

Why do I keep on entering events that make me lose the will to live/cry/swear at my own knees?

And the answer is:

Peak End Theory

Heard of it?

It goes like this. Your brilliant brain stores memories of positive (or negative) events based on two factors:

1. How you felt during the most intense part of the event.

2. How you felt afterward.

Basically, when you recall an event, you’re playing the highlight reel.

Oh, tricky brain haven’t you forgotten the squelch of blood in sock, the very bad taste of warm Tailwind, and the realisation you’re only 1/16th of the way round this friggin’ trail course?

No, of course you haven’t. All you’ve remembered is the elation of starting a race fresh as a daisy, the encouragement of the crowd, and the arms aloft the moment you crossed the line.

But why is this important for runners? Let’s dive into the history of Peak End Theory. Nobel Prize-winning Israeli psychologist Daniel Kahneman presented it to the world during the late 90s, a time I vaguely recall when smartphone photography was just a gleam in the eye of Steve Jobs and we all very much ‘lived in the moment’. For me, this was mainly down the pub with my mate Ellie.

But for runners, it’s an interesting question. Do we truly live in the moment during a run, or are we there for the sense of how it feels after we finish? In a world where we’re regularly urged to be more mindful, what does it mean for us?

Maybe it means losing the earbuds (literally or metaphorically) or running naked, which I now understand means zero tech, best get that right.

Perhaps it’s looking ahead rather than adopting the teeth gritted, eyes to the ground stance, I know I’m often guilty of.

If we’re more mindful in our running, acknowledging pain and how we feel more openly, perhaps our highlight reels might reflect a more honest summary of that 10-miler that felt like wading through treacle or the emotional mountain you climbed during a particularly awful 5k.

After all Peak End Theory does appear to serve a purpose. Kahneman believed it came down to evolutionary necessity:

“Memory was not designed to measure ongoing happiness, or total suffering. For survival, you really don’t need to put a lot of weight on duration of experiences. It is how bad they are and whether they end well, that is really the information you need as an organism.”

If this is the case, then there’s part of the answer in the ‘whether they end well’ part of that quote.

That glorious finish line, the overall sense of sheer relief that you’ve done it. The promise of a shower and a well-earned beer, perhaps evolutionary theory is a runner’s friend after all.

The Brain Game

I find running psychology fascinating. For so many of us, we accept there’s pain and discomfort along the way, and we accept it really isn’t all about enjoying an event (though of course, that is possible). It’s about, for me at least, daring to try.

Daring to run a hard distance (whatever that might be) and daring to do it knowing you might not finish.

I love that running confounds so many things. Talk to any runner and you’ll hear so many reasons why they continue to train. From my experience, physical health often features a little way down the list, behind mental wellbeing, getting outside, and running away from the kids.

So why do you keep going? Are you all about the highlight reel? Perhaps you are a mindful runner who lives in the moment and experiences every bit of the journey from the soaring highs to the crashing lows.

But more importantly, where do I sign up for that next event?