I was reading Runner’s World today when I came across an ad by Pearl Izumi. I wasn’t terribly interested in the ad itself and would have skipped it except that I had just recently bought some Pearl Izumi biking shorts and didn’t know that they made running shoes.

Then I started reading the text of the ad.

Running hurts. It always has. Woolly mammoths didn’t just roll over onto a plate and serve themselves up to prehistoric man with fries and a shake. They had to be caught - and running down woolly mammoths was a bitch. Guess what? Running is still a bitch. But one with a purpose. It teaches us that good things do not come easy. it teaches us that we are capable of more than we think. It teaches us that hard work will be rewarded and laziness will be punished. Don’t expect to learn those life lessons from running’s shiftless stepchild, jogging. Next time you suffer on the roads or trails, suffer proudly. It means you run like an animal.

I love it.

I find it very inspiring. It’s the kind of language that speaks to me when it comes to physical effort, endurance, exertion. I followed up and clicked through to the Pearl Izumi RunLikeAnAnimal.com ad site and the text there is just as good (if you like this kind of thing). I’m not as impressed by the saverun.org site though. My wife works in interactive advertising and I’ve had to help seed a number of viral advertising schemes like this with fake “social” content. Bah.