Emotions Per Kilometre

For some lucky people, nothing brings on the warm-and-fuzzies like a good run.

- Peter Sagal

In mid-February, radio host and writer John Moe put out a question on Twitter: “Hey, any runners out there: do you ever get weirdly sentimental during runs? Like after several kays? Keeps happening to me. It’s strange.” (Before moving on, does anybody remember what we did with our random thoughts, musings, and observations before Twitter? Did they just vanish into the Realm of Lost Things, like single socks and receipts for cheap appliances that break right away?)

I was struck by his question, for two reasons. First, because John (a friend) is not inclined to sentiment at all, and second, because in all my years and kilometres of running, this has never happened to me. Yes, I’ve had those moments of euphoria known as the ‘runner’s high’, and there are reams of scientific studies showing that running improves mood, alleviates depression and anxiety, and basically does every good thing for your brain short of removing it from your skull, giving it a wash and a blow dry, and putting it back in all warm and toasty.

But this was the first time I had ever heard of this specific phenomenon, which you might call ROWF, for Running-Onset Warmand-Fuzzies. So I called John, and put the question to him: WTF with the ROWF?