The Runner’s High – How and Why it’s Helped us Survive

I love talking to people about why they run. You’ll get a wide range of reasons depending on who you ask. What’s even more interesting though is hearing about HOW they get through a run not just WHY they decide to do it. Think about it. Coming up with a reason to get off the couch or wake up on a Saturday morning and run is pretty easy to do, relatively speaking. Convincing yourself to go 11.2 more miles when you’re already 15 miles into a run requires much more conviction. That’s a decision fewer can make.

Enter the fabled “runner’s high”. Ask some runners about it and they will tell you that it’s intense. A sudden burst of energy that drives you further. Your entire body lights up like a Christmas tree with surges of endorphines coursing through your veins. Your feet stop aching. The muscles in your lower back, quads and hamstrings relax. Your sweat no longer cakes to your face leaving a stiff mask of filth, but instead wicks away nicely leaving an emolient effect as the wind gently blows your skin dry. In fact, you feel SO GOOOOD you don’t even need food or drink. Heck, you don’t even need your shoes anymore.

Well, maybe not that good. That’s a bit of an embellishment. Or is it?

What is the runners’ high?

If you search Wikipedia for runner’s high you’ll actually get redirected to the article about Endorphines where it describes the release of naturally occurring compounds in the body that produce an analgesic effect. In other words, the runner’s high is a natural source of pain release. The compounds released in your body resembled opiates and give you a general sense of well-being. Yeah, opiates. There is  reason why it’s called the “runner’s high” and not the “runner’s relaxation” or the “runner’s oh man that feels good”. Just look at the picture above of our happy hippie runner for a visual.

I’m frequently asked if I’ve ever had it before and I can honestly say that I have. From experience it has kicked in late in a race. When I was running the Florence Italy Marathon it kicked in about mile 23 because I could see the Duomo in the distance (the official finish line). As soon as I saw that I had mental flashes of the cheers of thousands of spectators, my friends and family back home egging me on, and deep admiration for those around me who also laced up their shoes and pounded the pavement that day. It was an acute bout of mental stimulation that triggered the runner’s high in my case. Every case of runner’s high I’ve had since then has come in the same context.

What the runner’s high has taught me

These experiences have taught me something about the runner’s high besides that it’s hardwired into your anatomy. I’ve learned that there is a trigger and that your mind is the finger on that trigger. It comes down to your motivation for running. My motivation has always been to live a healthy life, see the world by foot, experience the sheer agony of pushing myself to the limit, and to become a positive influence in the lives of my friends and family. It’s those thoughts, triggered late in the race and deep in miles, that pulls the trigger and fires my own runner’s high. But who’s to say that everyone’s mental trigger is the same?

I strongly believe that humans were born to run. I could not agree more with Christopher McDougall in his book Born to Run. There’s something truly unique about our body’s design that makes us fit for running long, hard distances. Other runners and researchers who share this belief frequently talk about the physiological and anatomical adaptations of our body such as the Achilles Tendon and it’s spring-loaded impact on our stride, the Glutes and how they fire only at the peak of our stride extension, helping more with propulsion and maintaining our balance along the way. But what about the runner’s high? Was this an adaption spawn from the survival of the fitest as well?

I’m not one to answer that question scientifically but it raises interesting questions about the runners high and how it fit into the lives of our ancient ancestors.  Like the mental triggers that ignite my own high, surely ancient Man had triggers of his/her own. Unfortunately the Florence Marathon did not exist 10,000 years ago. Neither did programs such as Team in Training so motivations for running like finding a cure for cancer or traveling the world didn’t exist. It must have been something much more relevant to the context of their lives. More germane to their circumstances. More natural….. like…. survival.

I’m being a bit vague. Let me explain.

Image that you are a subsistence hunter. Subsistence hunters are those that hunt and kill through a war of attrition. In other words, you’re willing to chase your prey further and for longer than your prey is willing to flea. This is your style of hunting because that’s what you’re best at. You can’t sprint 40 mph and you don’t have 3 inch claws. What you do have though is a certain set of skills and physical abilities that allow you to travel great distances at a steady pace. You can comfortably run 20, 30, 40 or MORE miles at once. You’re prey does not have that ability. So you stalk your prey relentlessly. You cover mile after mile tactically staying on the trail of your prey. You chase it down until complete exhaustion sets in and your prey’s great speed and slashing claws no longer count. That’s how subsistence hunters hunt and that’s how humans survived a long time ago.

Hard to believe? Then I recommend you watch the Muhammad Ali and George Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974. Everyone new that Foreman was stronger and a more vicious striker; including Ali. So Ali played the war of attrition card and persevered through round after round of pounding blows from Foreman. Ali paced himself though and Foreman ran out of gas in the 8th round after throwing too many punches too fast in intense heat that night in Zaire. Ali sensed weakness and pounced, knocking Foreman down and winning a fight he was not supposed to win. Slow and steady won the fight for Ali that night.

Humans were made to survive. We were made to run. We’ve been equipped with abilities that give us a fighters chance. One of the most remarkable abilities, in my opinion, is the runner’s high. In my life it’s allowed me to cross the finish line of a marathon at the steps of a 2,000 year old building in a city 6,385 miles away from where I grew up. It’s urged me to train harder and longer so that I could cross other finish lines where my family sat cheering me on. In the greater scheme of things though the runner’s high has done more for us than help us cross a thin line of tape in a foreign city. Our abundance today is a result of our persistence many years back and it’s the runner’s high that has contributed to that.