Legends of Sports Motivation
Why Do Health-Challenged People Train for Endurance Events?
Running a marathon or competing in a triathlon, even where there are risks, is a goal many athletes with medical issues are willing to take on.
We have all read the stories. The man in his sixties recovered from heart by-pass surgery who has completed almost 30 million metres on an indoor rower. The younger man diagnosed with terminal cancer who does the kayaking leg of a multisport event. The legendary Terry Fox, an amputee who ran 5,373 kilometres across Canada in 1980 to raise money for cancer research.
When healthy people may struggle to find the motivation to get to the gym, what motivates people with disabilities and serious health issues to take on such enormous physical challenges?
The health benefits of moderate exercise are undisputed, ranging from weight control to a positive impact on conditions such as diabetes. Dr. Martin Paul in his 1997 book The Healing Mind (New York: St. Martin’s Press), observed that people who do not exercise are more likely to suffer from depression. But Dr. Paul also expressed the view that “extreme physical exertion is a powerful stressor which can impair immune function and lower the body’s defence against infection.” So for the medically challenged and the well, taking on an endurance sport is likely to carry a mix of risks and benefits.
Here are some of the reasons medically challenged people have given for setting themselves big physical goals.
Because I Can
In his book, It’s Not About the Bike (New York: GP Putnam’s Sons, 2000), multiple winner of the Tour de France Lance Armstrong describes how he felt about riding again after surgery and chemotherapy for cancer. In the past, he writes, “I’d never ridden just to ride”. Afterwards, “I not only loved the bike, I needed it….If nothing else, it was my way of countering the disease and regaining the control it had stripped from me.” Similar feelings have been expressed by aging marathon runners and triathletes who continue competing despite the need for more careful preparation and the inevitability of slower times. For these people being there, simply doing it, has value.
Still Hooked on Adrenaline
Dr. Paul describes stress-seeking as “a particular feature of humans”, and Matt Church in his 2004 book Adrenaline Junkies & Serotonin Seekers describes addiction to “the rush chemical”. People who have trained for peak performance on a regular basis for much of their lives may want to continue, even with a medical challenge. Well-known writer Dr. George Sheehan ran competitively for six years while undergoing cancer treatment because he was “addicted to racing.”
Of course, there are various types of physical challenge, and numerous sports-oriented people have successfully changed their chosen activity. For example, New Zealand daily The Dominion Post (May 6, 2008) reports on former top marathon runner Ann O’Brien who, now suffering from multiple sclerosis, recently celebrated her 50th birthday with a parachute jump.
Looking Forward
In his 2005 book The Anatomy of Hope (London: Simon&Schuster), Dr. Jerome Groopman describes the impact of “belief and expectation” on the release of endorphins and enkephalins (the body’s natural morphine), and more profoundly, on the voluntary (regulating controllable muscles) and autonomic (regulating respiration, circulation and digestion) nervous systems. Groopman also describes the work of professionals studying addiction in linking the expectation of benefit, (as a result of goal-seeking behaviour and motivation), to an increased secretion of dopamine, a chemical in the central nervous system associated with pleasure.
Most importantly, Groopman observes a cyclical process in the “biology of hope”: “the stirrings of recovery in our tissues help generate the feeling of hope”, which can then assist with recovery. Having a large physical goal could assist with cultivating attitudes that may help people to meet their medical challenges.
Mindful Living
Both in psychotherapy and in some approaches to spirituality, there is recognition of the power of mental focus and reflection in assisting in healing. To complete the daily training required to achieve sporting objectives may be seen as a way of learning to “pay attention”.
Darlene Cohen, writing in the book Being Bodies (L. Friedman and S. Moon, editors; Shambhala: Boston, 1997), describes her experience with rheumatoid arthritis. After several years with the disease she was at a resort in California and requested the job of cabin-cleaning, ardous work usually reserved for teenagers. After a few weeks of daily three-hour sessions she found herself “exhilarated and bursting with energy.”
According to Cohen, a Buddhist, the benefit comes from “intimacy with our activity and the objects around us.” This connection, she writes, “to the earth, our bodies, our sense impressions, our creative energies, our feelings, other people—is the only way I know to alleviate suffering”.
