Self preservation

'Why do I run? We know that the effects of training are temporary. Icannot put fitness in the bank. If inactive, I will detrain in even less time than it took me to get in shape. And since my entire persona is influenced by running program, I must be constantly in training. So I run each day to preserve the self I attained the day before. And coupled with this is the desire to secure the self yet to be . . . I run so I do not lose the me I was yesterday and the me I might become tomorrow."--George Sheehan, M.D., in Going the Distance: One Man's Journey to the End of His Life (Villard, 1996).

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