What rawdogging running has given my brain

By Saz Rainford, VP Clients & New Business

Apparently the beautiful term ‘rawdogging’ has evolved to mean doing something without protection, distraction, or preparation. So I guess that means I can say I’ve been “rawdogging running for years”. Just me, my legs, and a catastrophic amount of unprocessed thoughts, and it’s become my secret to a peaceful brain.

It all started with my mum.

Doesn’t everything?

Her signature phrase when I was little, delivered with the energy of someone who had seen hardship (she hasn’t), was “it’s good to be bored”.

I know mum will never read this as she still calls the internet the “Yahoo thing”.

It drove me insane. In what world would smashing out “Motherlode” on the Sims or back-to-back Hannah Montana not be a better solution than being bored.

The thing is, back in the good old days, we weren’t really having to escape the entertainment, there were just loads of moments without it. Long car journeys, lots of queuing at the post office (not sure why I remember this as a prevalent moment in my childhood), waiting for the microwave for a full 90 seconds. And you know what, I guess our brains were regularly just found, pottering.

So mum, you were wrong then because I was always bored. But you’re right now. Because somewhere along the way I stopped being bored entirely, and my brain started quietly craving it.

So in the pesky pandemic I started running. For miles and miles. In the earliest hours of the day, preferably in the pitch black, where London was totally peaceful (apart from the other fellow weirdos like me - hi Ben Gateley).

One morning I didn’t charge my Garmin, my phone was out of battery and so I just left with nothing. It actually felt quite weird. Like I could turn at any point and no-one would understand where I was (sounding more unsafe than it was). But my brain was left alone for the first time since that microwave, and it started working.

Turns out it’s quite wild what your brain does when you finally leave it alone, unpestered by TikTok.

Each morning run, I’d work through my typical filing cabinet of worries: does my life-long friend not texting back mean she hates me, is the person I manage happy in their career, am I happy in mine, should I just move abroad and change up my entire life? You know the classics. But weirdly, after 2-3 hours the cabinet sort of clears. So I arrive at my desk and somehow feel ready to solve new challenges, and of course being dosed up on my favourite drug - endorphins.

But apparently there is some science in this. When you run without input, your brain drops to Default Mode Network (DMN). The mode associated with creativity, self reflection, and problem solving. It’s the same mode you hit just before you sleep, which is why I sometimes ask the helpful questions like “do you think we’ve made the right decision moving to New York” right before going to sleep. Nothing is competing for my brain at that moment, so the thoughts roam free.

If we’re constantly scrolling, we’re not actually tapping into DMN that regularly, limiting our moments of self reflection and creative thought.

It’s our job now to work harder to enter that mode. My advice? Attempt the rawdog run.

I know what you’ll all say, “Saz you don’t get it, I need music to get moving”.

Same. Genuinely, sometimes same.

I’m not here to be annoying about it. I have the same relationship with Strava as I did with Hinge - I deleted it. I said goodbye to the virtual world and hello to the non-existing chat-ups at the bar, re-downloaded it the moment I needed a bit of validation, stared at my kudos count when I uploaded a run the other day. It all feels good.

I’m just saying, every now and then, try it. A walk, a run, an extended moment without a screen. Even 20 minutes for you time-poor parents out there.

It’ll feel a bit weird. You’ll be confronted by your own brain, but your ability to sort through that filing cabinet will improve.

And you’ll arrive at your next moment much clearer.