Why we run?

I am always amused by people who know that I run marathons but come up to me at a party and say "gee, I'd love to do a marathon, but I hate to run". I always suggest that they concentrate on some exercise that they enjoy, and they usually walk away with a puzzled look. I have always loved to run, even as a child I would run up and down hills while my family prepared a picnic. In college, I frequently ran between classes. Not because I had to, but through the sheer joy that I found in running. This all made me think about why running is fun for me. Is it because I see it as a form of play? Or perhaps it is the discoveries that one makes while running? The smells of bakeries and coffee shops as one runs through an unfamiliar city? Or the sunrises, the fog over a lake, the crispness in the air as the seasons change, during the runs around a route that one has done countless times before? There is also a happiness that I get from running with friends. Most of my closest friends were developed from running, whether it was training for a marathon, or meeting at 6:00 AM to run two lakes and discuss everything from our daily life to politics or our take on a new restaurant. But I also like to run alone. It gives me a chance to think about a variety of things and sometimes just to daydream. I sometimes find that I'll start laughing about something while I'm running and I can sense people saying to themselves: "he's like a silly child". They are right, .........that's why I run.