Runners 'High'

I am a runner. I run three to four times a week; sometimes more if I am training for a marathon. I was fascinated by an article in the New York Times on Thursday (03/27) about ‘runners high’; that euphoric feeling runners are supposed to get when they finish a race. I assumed ‘runners high’ was a myth or at the very least, something an elite runner experienced, not a duffer like me. The Times article put an end to the myth and described how a German doctor discovered a scientific method of measuring ‘runners high’.

I read about ‘runners high’ from magazine articles. I don’t believe I ever experienced this ‘high’; usually described as a release of endorphins in the brain which brought about a state of euphoria - akin to being stoned. (Endorphins affect mood.) I ran seven marathons and I never felt like that. All I felt was exhaustion, as I clutched my heart and did everything I could to avoid puking, as I collapsed on the ground.

So here is the scoop on how the ‘runners high’ was finally measured.
A Dr. Hening Boecher of the University of Bonn discovered that PET scans used to measure pain, combined with new chemicals could be used to measure endorphin levels in a runners brain. The good doctor tested runners before a race and at the end and discovered elevated endorphin levels in the area of the brain associated with emotion. Dr. Boecher compared the ‘high’ to the feeling one gets from being in love.

Dr. Boecker and colleagues recruited 10 distance runners and told them they were studying opioid receptors in the brain. But the runners did not realize that the investigators were studying the release of endorphins and the runner’s high. The athletes had a PET scan before and after a two-hour run. They also took a standard psychological test that indicated their mood before and after running.
The data showed that, indeed, endorphins were produced during running and were attaching themselves to areas of the brain associated with emotions, in particular the limbic and prefrontal areas.
The limbic and prefrontal areas, Dr. Boecker said, are activated when people are involved in romantic love affairs or, he said, “when you hear music that gives you a chill of euphoria, like Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.” The greater the euphoria the runners reported, the more endorphins in their brain. – New York Times, Thursday 03/27

Now I know that ‘runners high’ is not a myth, but is a real and measurable feeling, instead of puking or collapsing at the end of my race, I will dig deep in my prefrontal brain for those euphoric feelings of love.