Every beginning runner I’ve known has had many mistaken notions about running. Some believe you must have long legs to be a good runner. Some believe a large heart is necessary. Others figure you need cavernous lungs to process vast quantities of oxygen. Many are convinced you must be rail thin. Or possess muscles that have been well developed by other sports like soccer or basketball. None of these are true.

Running is a nonskill activity. Think for a moment about tennis. If you don’t learn the serve and backhand, you won’t go far in the game. Think about golf and all the clubs toted around by pro golfers. Each club requires a different skill set. It takes years to master just a few of them.

Not so with running. There’s nothing to learn. Unless you had a childhood disability, you mastered running when you were three years old. It was as easy as talking and walking. Today you can put one foot in front of the other as skillfully as an Olympic marathoner. You aren’t as fit or as fast, but you don’t lack any key techniques.

To improve your body’s ability to run, only one organ is required—the one between your ears. You got it, the brain. If you can tap into the power of your brain, you will succeed. You will become a healthy, accomplished runner, capable of achieving any goals you aspire to.

Want to complete a marathon some day? No problem. Tens of millions of others have done this. They didn’t have more talent than you. They simply set their minds to the task.

It’s not about shoes, it’s not about nutrition, and it’s not about conquering the hills. Those will come. They are important. But they fade away to almost nothing when compared to the brain.

I’m not saying you’ll have a tailwind every step of the way. I don’t believe in gauzy promises tied up in pretty pink bows. That’s not my style.

Quite the contrary. I can guarantee you’ll face plenty of setbacks and disappointments in your running. Everyone does. But these obstacles won’t stop you, not when you run with your brain.

  

Don’t be perfect. Be persistent: Runners tend to succeed in all areas of life, not just in running, because they are organized, committed, consistent, disciplined, and goal oriented. These are all brain functions. You need a plan, and you need to follow that plan. But you don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be persistent.

If you can check off 80 percent of the workouts on your plan, that’s roughly as good as 98 percent. So don’t get discouraged when illness, bad weather, family emergencies, or a thousand other responsibilities blow up your best-laid plans.

Just get reorganized, rededicated, and back on track. Use your brain to chart a new course. It’s your most potent weapon.

  

Practice resilience: Bend but don’t break. When the going gets tough, you need to get tougher. Whenever you miss a short-term goal, visualize yourself hitting that goal just a little further down the road. Nothing is impossible, but everything takes time—often more time than we would like.

Running is a tortoise-and-hare activity. The tortoise always gets to the finish line first. She doesn’t set records. She just gets the job done. Winners never quit, and quitters never win.

  

Dream big: In his insightful book Why We Run: A Natural History, zoologist and ultramarathon runner Bernd Heinrich, PhD, explains why humans run long distances, but other animals don’t. It’s because we have the largest brain.

Paleolithic man dreamed of catching an antelope, the yummiest and most nutritious meal imaginable. He knew it might not happen in the first hour, but he didn’t quit. He stayed on the trail. He kept on trekking. No other animal would do this, because none could look into the future and see ultimate success. Humans could. It is how we humans have accomplished everything. We hunt our dreams.

Today a beginning runner can imagine completing a 5K race in three months, even if she can’t finish a mile today. A runner can dream of weighing 180 pounds in a year, even if he weighs 250 today. A runner can dream of seeing her daughter graduate from college in fifteen years even if her oncologist has just delivered a grim report.

Dream on. When you harness the awesome power of your brain, your legs will follow.