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What motivates you?
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MD5: Just read your initial post properly.
One word from me to you: Respect.
I run:
- because I love the mental space it allows me. I get some of my best ideas when running.
- because I love watching life around me.
- to run the dog.
- to get soaked when its raining!
- for the high.
- for my wellbeing.
- to prove that "I can".
And on January 11th 2010, I am running to Run the World.I am not the most self-confident person in the world. When I was 14-15, I had "friends" who thought they were so much better than me, constantly giving me "advice" about how I could become as "cool" as them, what my shortcomings were and how they were so much better than me. Any time I did something good or worthwhile they always brought me back down because "Dude, anyone could do that."
However, now, with running, I have that self-confidence. I can head out of the door each and every day knowing that the target I have set myself for that session is wholly achievable and I believe fully that I am a good runner. I enter every race believing I will not give less than 100%.
I'm an ambitious sort of person, and I see millstones - sub-40 10k, sub-20 5k, sub-3 hour Marathons, Ironmans - not as something that cannot be achieved, but something that is achievable if I'm willing to put the time and effort in. I look at an Ironman, and I say to myself: "Yes, I can".
I love the end of a race. When I've smashed my PB in a race, I look back over the months of training and say "that's what got me here". Similarly, when I look ahead to months of hard training (as I am now, for the Silverstone Half in March), I visualize myself at the end of the race, achieving my target and knowing that it was the training that got me there.
Running makes me feel alive, I love going out on a chilly morning, seeing my breath and the weak sun in the sky, knowing I'm fully in control of what I do.
And what's more, I'm not even 20 yet. My best days are still ahead of me. I don't know what I'm capable of, but I know if I dedicate myself to my training, I'll reach it.
Michael, thank you for sharing your story. I wish you all the best for your marathon.
As for why I run, when I was very young I remember my mother collapsing from pneumonia and bronchitis outside of the school gates. She was taken to hospital and I and my sisters were taken into the home of a local foster family. My mother smoked and this illness was as a direct result of her smoking. Another childhood memory is of challenging my mother to a running race home from school. My mother lost, she had no energy, she was tired. My most vivid memory is of thinking that I never want to get to a point where I can't run anymore. I guess the final motivator is my PE teacher at secondary school telling us that we would all be fat and unfit by the time we were 30. I knew then that that would not be the case and I am glad that it is not. I want to be fit. I enjoy being able to run
I have also been so 'ill' that I thought that I was going to die one very snowy winters eve when all I had was a short walk home from the train station. That scarred me. I don't want to go there again but it's out of my control. I began to exercise as a way to punish my body but I punish it no more, I try enjoy it even though it is hard at times and sometimes I slip.
When I was younger, at school, it was the sport that came easiest to me.
So I decided it was the sport for me.
Like many I started because I was overweight (Obese!) and desperately unfit. I've also found it has helped provide focus away from personal demons and made me feel a whole lot better about myself.
I continue to run as I enjoy the personal achievement that races bring and these races in turn provide me the motivation to get up in a morning and run!
Hi All, it's great reading about all your stories and your motivation to run. I was a sickly child (got a weak heart!) and was signed off PEs each year until the end of secondary school. It was perhaps teenage rebellion that I decided to prove the doctors wrong - that I shouldn't strain my heart - and started going out plodding the roads. I remembered my first trot (stroll mostly) was about 5 minutes and I couldn't breathe properly for a while (and all the 'I told you so...'), but I went out again and again and started to get better. I've been running for more than 30 years now and did several half and full marathons along the way. There had been a lapse of several years when running became secondary - that didn't do me any good, I became restless and lethargic. I started back big time a couple of years ago clocking the miles again. I'm not concern about PBs, for me it's about keeping fit and see how far I can go without getting puffed out. This year since joining a running club, I have got back into organised runs and discovered the joy of running off road when I ran in a X country event for the first time. Now 2 of my 5 weekly runs are off roads. I'm quite slow but I can plod along for miles and miles without getting puffed out. Keep running......
I run because I always have.... and because I still can......and my 2 dogs need exercise.......
Am in my 50th year of running and racing, and have no intention of stopping any time soon.
When I was at school as a was a fit so and so. I ran everywhere, I was in the cross country team, played football went boxing etc. Then 16 I discovered other things and I stopped everything.I am now 38, I have tried running on and off on numerous occasions, but I have been running consistantly since June 08.
My job has always involved being on my feet, so relatively active/fit and has always involved drinking heavily when not working. The final push was I got drunk and lost and walked home. It turned out I walked 35km back home whilst sobering up. I woke the next day and made a decision. I went for a 20km round trip walk, stopping for ice cream after 10km. I started run/walk training the next day.
The other reason to start again was pure vanity, I have a young daughter and I do not want to be the fat parent (which I suffered growing up) . Now gone from 84kg to 72kg and 36 inch waist to 32 inch waist.
I now continue to run because I really enjoy it and to continue to push myself, I have new goals; sub 40min 10k, sub 1:30 HM and sub 3:15 M, all in 2010. Obviously once I achieve my goals I can set others, another reason I love running.
The best example, I went for a 16 mile run this morning, 10 at LSR pace and last 6 at PMP. Great run. Spent the last 6 hours drinking to celebrate (which will explain the burble text above), it is all about balance.
"it is all about balance" - very amusing in the context of that paragraph. Well done sir!
I run because I am, and always was, good at it - and the least I can do, in recognition of the efforts of all the people who have posted on this thread is to make the best of the ability that I have have been given
To be honest I haven't always made the best of my abilities, but at this present point in time it seems (providing I can stay away from injury) the right thing to do.
Like a few people on this thread running came naturally at school and was the one thing I had my mates respect on!!
I 've run on and off since (and by off I mean gaps of years here and there)!!
About 9-10 weeks ago my daughter came home from school with a flyer for the Warrington half marathon (we live in Warrington) and something clicked and I said "I fancy that!!"
BUT I had missed the the application date!! I'd always said that 1 day i'd love to do a marathon so found this site, got a schedule, found a half that co-incided with the timing and entered and started my training the following Monday!!
Saw a load of great people on here and found myself wanting to race!!
Did my 1st 10K in October and my 2nd today!! Found I love the training and challenging myself each time and thats about it!! Loving the added benefits of feeling fitter, good about myself, lost nearly half a stone, mrs loves the streamline me and found i'm not too bad at it!!
Some cracking stories in this thread, keep it up you lot!!
80% of success is turning up.
Once you get out there you've won the battle. That motivates me to get outside!
One of my motivations is fitness and having a bit of a chip on my shoulder.
Im not thin and as part of work I have a yearly fitness test and its nice to turn up recieve a bit of banter then out run the majority of them....especially the thin ones.
but on a more serious note i run to get away from life.
when im running with my ipod in, its just me and my music and the tarmac. no mobile (get nagged for not taking it) no worries, just concentrate on my breathing and enjoying the air and the isolation.
I love running.. i think the fact that i love it is my motivation...i couldnt imagine mylife without it.
Amongst another million reasons, I run because its like therapy for me and helps me sort stuff out in my head.. This is particulary important right now in my life since my boyfriend dumped me a couple of days ago... i have some nice long runs planned over the next few weeks..
Great Thread!!! Thanks MD
I run because I want to!
Not because I have to, BUT Because I want to !! I never knew that until I typed it 
Strange !
Running / Jogging doesn't come naturally to me, I was always the bigger girl at school and PE was a nightmare because I was always the last person to be picked
Sob story over, but I am a member of BMF (British Military Fitness) and we ''play'' a game just before cool down.... And guess what I'm always the first person to be picked now... Its such a good feeling 
I've lost 5 stone so far and running is a great help to keep that at bay and help maintain the lose. x
Running for me changed me and like i said in another thread since doing the marathon that has changed me even more im more self confident,Determined and driven to succed in my life, 5 years ago i was fat,depressed,dangerously obese and suicidal now im the opposite of them all, My idols are Lance Armstrong,Michael Phelps and Carl Lewis.
The first 2 might seem strange considering there not runners but all 3 came from bullied,deprived and low esteem childhoods like mine and look what they have achieved they are driven and mentally tougher then those insignifcant twerps who picked on them and although im no were near or ever likely to get to there achievements my own achievements are extrodanary considering who i was.
P.S Sorry for poor grammer and spelling.
Don't worry about the grammer or spelling.... I am rubbish at it and like a few people have already said, if you have something to say, go ahead and say it
Good luck with everything you want to do with your life 
I wont be satisfied till i have i done 20 marathons,.
I was working a job in the City that made me stressed and unhappy and left me without time for anyone or anything.
My brother challenged me to run a fell race and, although I was in agony the entire way round and came waaay down the field, I was hooked.
I've now moved out of London, got married, had a nipper, lost some weight, done plenty of running and riding and am regularly getting top-10 race finishes.
I run because it's what makes me feel most like 'me'.