Run with your imagination

I have written before about how your imagination is a powerful ally for your running, about how positive thoughts can help you when the going gets a bit tough in training or in races. Well I recently came across this quote from Lorraine Moller – a former Olympian and marathon winner – which reminds me of how we can use our imagination in other ways, it allows your mind to run away with itself:

“Throw away your ten-function chronometer, heart-rate monitor with the computer printout, training log, orthotics, high-tech underwear, pace charts and laboratory rat-tested, air-injected, gel-lined, motion-controlled, top-of-the-line, fashion footwear. Run with only your imagination. It is your rich companion guiding you into realms further and faster and more daring than you ever dreamed. Follow it through exotic lands in far-off galaxies in times past and future. Run with the lithe strides of a Kalahari Bushmen in the hunt for dinner, or in the thundering midst of a stampede of elephants. When thirsty run towards the oasis in Death Valley at midday. Sometimes giant strides with giant feet that cover whole countries can be very economical. And when the ground is boggy, launch off each foot to pluck a star from the heavens and carry the lightness of them in your pockets. Uphill, attach a few helium balloons to your vest so that your feet skim the ground, leaving no footprints. Downhills are free energy, so take off the brakes and spread your wings for take-off. In stiff competition cast a line to the person in front and gently reel yourself in so that they never notice. Then, as you slip past, become as invisible as a colourless rainbow and as silent as lightening that outran its thunder. And when you cross the finish line, always throw your arms in the air in total ecstasy. After all, this is your running and your life. Come on, your have to admit that there is nothing like that feeling, knowing you are the master of your running destiny. No limits, just you and as far as your mind can stretch.”