Running is going to suck, and you’re going to have to learn to get over it.
I have people in my sphere ask me all the time “Delta, how do I get better at running?” Or give a statement that more or less says “Running sucks and I’ll never bea good runner because it isn’t for me”. Fair point, I’m not really a fan of painting or crafting. However, my disinterest in painting does not share the root reason that most people who give statements such as their disdain for running. I believe that for most people, running is a painful experience that, if they do not have to engage in it, why would they dedicate the time to do so? Exertion is considered by the body painful, and will only reward that exertion if something is accomplished. Because we are no longer hunter/gatherers in east Africa running down our meals, there really is not much point to running. This is the reason why our obesity rate is at a crisis point, and will only grow worse over time.
I don’t need to throw the book of health benefits to running. I’m sure there is hardly anyone, aside from a bodybuilder or powerlifter, who would give any statement resembling “Running is bad for you” (And the bodybuilders and powerlifters are wrong, cardio is good for those sports too). The only, somewhat reasonable argument anyone can make about running is that it has a rougher impact on your body moreso than say biking, or swimming. I’d say sure, fair point, but that’s really just an attempt to give an excuse that does not really apply to most people. Most people could run without much hinderance; again, hominids that developed homosapians literally spent millions of years running down their prey in east Africa. It would be a shocking evolutionary shift if the vast majority of a species completely shifted evolutionarily in 20,000 years, a relatively small timeframe in the grand scale of evolution, especially considering there are virtually no natural selection causes that would be the catalyst of the shift.
As I stated in the beginning, the reason people do not like running is because it hurts. It hurts in the muscles because exertion hurts. It hurts in the lungs because exertion hurts. It hurts in interest because running requires time-space dedication and focus; you cannot do anything else other than focus on running (Aside from listening to music or an audiobook, etc). Because of this, running is seen as a chore by most, and like all chores, if it does not need to be accomplished, it won’t.
So why are there people who do run? I’m sure that the reasons have as much variety as people who run. However, the first princple that is universally shared amongst all runners, regardless of the myriad of reasons, is that the runner makes running into something that it isn’t. If someone like me is training, it’s because they’re competitive, and want to be the best. Others use it as a form of medition, which, when you actually get into the groove and rythym, running does have a meditative quality. Regardless of the reasons, runners universally take something that sucks, and make it something that does not suck. That is the runners mentality.