Argumentative Essay: Why Running Is A Mental Sport

“Life’s battles don't always go to the strongest or fastest man, but sooner or later the man who wins is the fellow who thinks he can.” Running is a mental sport. Running tests your bodies’ endurance and capability to push through the pain. Running can be an addicting sport because of the endorphins and accomplishment you feel when you run a new personal best. Running can also be a huge stress relief; just getting out and the trail and thinking of everything and nothing. Cross country is long distance test of endurance and strength, both mental and physical. Track, on the other hand, is a short burst of speed testing how fast your legs can carry you. Cross country and track are sports that both deal with the runners’ mental strength, physical

In cross country you have to deal with the nagging of your mind telling you to stop for a much longer period of time. On the track, however, once you just get out there and run it is over before you know it. Cross country is arguably the more physically demanding sport. This is because it involves hills and mud and unstable terrain. The track is much more docile. The track is a large, flat oval with much more stability. It takes less work to move yourself through the race. The mental element is also much lower because with less pain, your mind will not try so hard to tell you to stop. Cross country also involves much more competition than track does. Some cross country races have over two hundred runners in them so even if you set a new personal best time, your placement can still be discouraging. It’s hard to motivate yourself to run the next race when even on your best day one hundred people beat you. The track does not have nearly as much competition; usually no more twenty runners at a time. But placing last out of only twenty can hurt even worse. You have got to keep going, even when a girl laps you and you just want to quit, you get more accomplishment out of just finishing no matter how bad you did instead of