As a long distance (trail) runner myself, I couldn't agree more with your perspective.  Trail running works as a sorting-out process for me...it's where I go to think and to have whitespace in my life.  In my profession (Leadership Development / Executive Coaching), I work with leaders at both ends of the spectrum:  endurance athletes and non-athletes.  While this is not validated scientific data by any means, I do tend to find that the endurance athletes are more balanced (ie, calm - respond vs react), they think through issues more thoroughly and from multiple viewpoints, and they are sick far less often.