Exercising to Stay Alive

There's a fascinating article in yesterday's New York Times Health Section exploring the strange connection between serious, even terminal illness, and the motivation to train -- sometimes for the most grueling endurance events.

Disease Invades a Body, and Endorphins Kick In

"Faced with a chronic condition or a terminal diagnosis, some individuals start training regimens that even the healthiest of us would find taxing. And the result is a fascinating if somewhat incongruous equation: people fighting sickness or disease who are, at the same time, in the best shape of their lives."

For some, the motivation and the fitness are an abrupt about-face from a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle, a chance to reclaim vitality as a kind of last resort. For others, the desire to train grows in spite of a terminal diagnosis, an inspirational swim against the current of the disease that provides at least a sense of purpose and satisfaction.

Some of the people mentioned in the article admit that they might be running away from their diagnoses, but for me that begs the question, by devoting ourselves to fitness aren't we all -- young and old, healthy and sick -- trying to escape the knowledge that we are mortal and ultimately on our way to that final "scratch" list?

Are runners, triathletes, cyclists, and their kind always a little bit closer to that sense of mortality?

I find is amazing, really, that running or biking or swimming for long distances -- activities that can seem so purposeless when one is healthy enough to do anything -- can become the essence of purpose when one is fighting for life.