why does running hurt? cause its bad for you. Why is it bad for you? cause it makes you hurt!

I am currently re-reading three books, in addition to reading at least 2 others. I would recommend every one of these books to anyone interested in their topics.
The first is The Book of Mormon. It is building block for my religion, and until you have made a point of reading and pondering over the gospels written on its pages, you will have a difficult time fully understanding my faith.
The second book was given to my father by by eldest brother in an attempt to get our dad to get back in shape. The book is titled 'Born to Run' and is written by Christopher McDougall. The book is an inspiration for anyone who has had a desire to run. It tells an in depth story of how one man compiles a host of running secrets in an effort uncover why the heck his foot hurt. It is the sort of book that goes beyond simply running, and has helped to encourage and inspire me in my preparation for serving a mission as well as for the rest of my life.
The third book was given to me directly from my brother for Christmas. 'Four Hour Body' attempts to break down all the norms and popular thought of weight loss, muscle gain, endurance running, fat burn, and sleep, and help you to become the person you want to be. These three books are entertaining, intriguing, thought provoking, and inspirational.
After finishing each of these books, I found myself looking at how to change the way I live my life to fit within the logical and simple teachings in each book. By putting them together, I have complied my very own version of a 'How to live a healthy, uplifting life that will bring you friends and eternal happiness and exaltation for Dummies.'
This post will focus mostly on 'Born to Run' because it is the one I am trying to finish reading the fastest at the moment.
As my previous postings may have hinted at, I enjoy running. In the mornings, I lace up my shoes, run to Planet Fitness, and work out before showering and suiting up for work four doors away. At night, i change into my running clothes and head back home. I haven't run a race since quitting track 2 and a half years ago, but I have helped supervise Runners Club two years in a row, bought three new pairs of running shoes, looked for new paths around De Pere and Sheboygan, and spent countless hours hitting the pavement. Because I was no longer racing, I was no longer forcing myself to train. I left half a dozen watches to gather dust on my desk as I ran farther and faster than when I was a second semester collegiate track athlete. All because I still loved to run.
That love had since faded slightly, and this summer, I even decided that I was no longer a runner, and would focus on putting on muscle mass to play football or rugby. Then I started reading 'Born to Run.' Before even finishing the book the first time, I found myself with an irrepressable urge to put on my 800 meter racing flats and just start running. Now, anyone with 0-10 years of running experience will tell you that for running you need to buy shoes that protect and pad your foot and heel, support your arch, and prevent the sway and rock or your foot. These shoes did absolutely NONE of those things. I made it 18 miles, and when I got home, I put the veggies in the pot roast that had been on the stove the last 2 1/2 hours, took off my shoes, and ran another 20 minutes barefoot while the meaty juices soaked into the carrots, onions, and potatoes. It was the best tasting meal I had ever had. The next day, I could barely walk (but in my defense, I had no muscle soreness, no joint pain, and no mental fatigue). A doctor informed me that I had royally messed up my cuboid bone, the EXACT same injury that led Douglas McDougall to fall to the ground screaming that a nail had pierced his foot only to find that there was nothing he could see at all. He went to two doctors who offered cortisone shots, told to buy custom made orthotics, and was advised to stop running. Thus, the book came to be.
I did none of these things, and ran another 15 miles at midnight on Sunday/Monday (so that I wouldn't be working out on Sunday) just three days after crippling myself, and followed that with a 16 mile effort Tuesday afternoon. I had become hooked on running again. There is a simple joy at being able to just throw on some shoes and run away from the world for hours at a time.
I have tell all of my friends that have ever run about this book when the opportunity arises. Anyone that is training for marathons, I advise to read this book. If someone wants to get into running for the first time, this is a great book to read. In other words, if you have run your whole life, recreationally, for your first marathon, or never even worn running shoes before, you can learn so much specific and broad information in this book that would take years extremely difficult and boring research attempting to find it anywhere else.
I am trying to balance my time right now between working, reading the BoM, Born to Run, perusing Four Hour Body, and now blogging/journaling. It leaves very little time for doing other things, so if you run into me and you notice I smell funky, then I was reading instead of doing my laundry or showering, or if I begin losing weight, I am blogging instead of eating (which reminds me... i haven't had dinner yet!).
In all honesty, I have found that running can hurt me more than most anything else I do, but it can make me feel amazing, even while wanting to cry. So i challenge each reader (that means YOU!!!) to make an effort to, at some point in the next two weeks, put on a pair of old, broken in shoes, and just start jogging. If you can sing Josh Gorban's rendition of 'Oh Holy Night,' you are going too slow. If you can't carry on a simplified conversation, you are going too fast. But go out, find a course that you can find natural beauty in, and find your running zone. If you do it right, you won't even know that you were gone for 60, 90, or even 185 minutes. Heck, you may even run a marathon before you get back. Our bodies were made to run, and we each have an impulse to become a runner. Find peace in running, and you will be on your way to finding yourself.