"My Runner's High Poem", about distance running and the crusade to change running form from heal landing to mid-foot striking.

A Runner's High Poem [Part 2 of my Sports Trilogy]

An original poem by Chrome Dome Mike Kimbro

Consider reading along to my Spoken Verse Performance.

I quickly discovered that a runner's high was most easily achieved while running on a dirt road on a flat surface, such as along the canal system in Phoenix, Arizona, in the Valley of the Sun.

VERSE 1

I'm a distance runner.

Use my muscular quads,

To elevate my knees skyward.

All my workouts are funner,

Soaring high with the gods.

Yeah, the feeling's far from wired,

When I'm on a runner's high.

VERSE 2

But there's an answer I seek:

Where am I supposed to land,

On the heel or further forward?

Please tell me which technique,

Improves the feeling so grand,

Because I feel kind of tortured,

When I don't hit a runner's high.

BRIDGE

But when it comes to running form,

I hear many calls to conform.

But I'll keep on embracing the norm,

Until I find a better runners high.

Image Credit: Tattoo artist extraordinaire Ashley Dawn

If it gets me there the fastest,

Makes my ecstasy the strongest,

And keeps me there the longest,

I'll tell my heal striking ways: "Bye, bye."

I'd gladly do my workouts in goose step,

With a tattoo of Liberache on my bicep,

Not giving a care as to the impact on my rep,

If it delivered a better runners high.

VERSE 3

New shoes were bought with interesting devices.

From U4ic midsoles to foams made of plastic,

And 3D overlays and even zero drop.

Given the pounding they take, I don't mind the prices.

And while some might consider this approach drastic,

The monthly sport shoe store visits will never stop,

Until I find a better runner's high.

That's Piestewa Peak, formerly Squaw Peak, there in the background of this pic taken in Phoenix, Arizona.

VERSE 4

I maintain that, as God is my witness,

While a marathon is my longest run,

A daily hour jog I need direly.

But some say that, if running for fitness,

Thirty minutes is all you need to "get 'er done".

Anything more is for something else entirely.

Like say maybe a runner's high.

Part of the canal system in the Valley of the Sun, run by the Salt River project which provides fresh water for most of Central Arizona.

VERSE 5

If you think I'm spending hours,

Like a mouse in a metal wheel,

Just to stay in primo shape.

You underestimate the power,

Of the addiction which I feel,

From it's grasp there is no escape.

Yep, I need that runner's high.

The End