Over the years I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.
A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end punish himself even more.
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
How does a kid from Coos Bay with one leg longer than the other win races?