Running Within: Can Running Be Spiritual ?

Ive just been reading Running Within A Guide to Mastering the Body-Mind-Spirit Connection for Ultimate Training and Racing By Jerry Lynch, Warren Scott..........

While its not a bad book it ventures into the corny world of 'affirmations' and 'visualisations' abit too much for my liking...it does raise the question, however, about the spiritual side of running........is it hogwash or is this part of the appeal ?

The thing that interests me is the similarity between running and meditation; both involve listening to your breath, spending long periods in isolation, focussing on your body and the environment you are in and learning to let your thoughts go (in running the thoughts about how far you have left and how you want it to finish).........

Hence.....

Musings of a Runner picks up this topic too

Theology Professor Warren A. Kay has pondered this too in his book "Running: The Sacred Art: Preparing to Practice."

"Running itself is a mode for spiritual growth that other sports may not be,running . . . doesn't need external tools or devices; you have your body, and that's all you need."

That's what the ancient Greeks believed, he writes, when they developed the concept of the Olympic Games, religious festivals in which running was the first event; or what a group of Japanese monks, known as the "Marathon Monks," see when they cover long distances in short periods of time.