I awoke today (mid afternoon as it happens, but that's a long, awkward and probably boring story) with the somewhat odd
Golly! Gosh! revelation that I witnessed man walking on the moon before I saw my first automatic opening door*. I remember both events equally well, with perhaps the automatic door making the greater impression on Early Life Crisis Boy. Well, I mean there are certainly more automatic doors around these days than moon missions, which I think perhaps says something about the relative relevance of both. Or maybe it's just that I was too damn lazy to hold the door open for anyone as a troubled yoof, I'm not sure. Society is to blame, anyhow.
Now when you think about, the automatic door has made a huge impact on the way we function as a society - in fact it's a blessed boon to civilisation if you ask me - if not for the automatic door we'd to have evolve an extra pair of arms, which would be difficult and I suspect take too long if we're to get the shopping home before the 6 o'clock news. So a bloody useful invention, that door-opening magic thing. Moon missions on the other hand were so ridiculously expensive (they had to invent calculators rather than rely on slide rules for all the adding up they had to do), dangerous (one nearly killed Tom Hanks for crying out loud) and largely pointless (I mean, duh) as to render them obsolete inside a handful of years. And frankly, moon mission coverage on TV just got in the way of a good football match, so we're better off without it.
My running tends to oscillate between two similar extremes: either I plan everything out to the
nth degree like a moon mission (but with Excel spreadsheets instead of the old Sharp EL-8 pocket calculator), or else it's just nice and simple - get out the door (automatic or otherwise) and go run somewhere, enjoy it and reap the benefits. Simple, yet exquisitely beneficial. Just like the automatic door.
Well maybe that's a bit of a corny analogy, but heck, that's what I woke with. Life's like that with me at the moment. As with a few others here on RC, my life has been very busy and chaotic of late, and it's been easy to let the running slip by, and that's a shame because once the running discipline takes a hold, it tends to help me work through all that other important stuff, like what sort of pocket calculator I should buy next, and should I really stick with Sharp anyway?
Anyhow, now that I have a race goal that is simply not negotiable, (ie the
Point to Pinnacle in November), I have had to force the issue and get running again. And it's weird how everything else seems easier to deal with when I make the effort to run - and not just pocket calculators, engrossing as that problem is.
Perhaps more weird is that this still surprises me. I've been going through some old RC posts (something I heartily recommend), and the theme is a constant one - running helps in every way. Making the effort to throw on the running shoes and go run a few clicks even a couple of times a week makes
such a difference. Like music, running seems to have an answer for every situation. Like a hug, it may not be the complete answer, but it absolutely, definitely helps (unless you're desperately trying to overcome an annoyingly habitual overuse of adverbs).
It's a few years since we had a runners' philosophy forum along these lines (see
here for example) - maybe it's time to indeed get the band back together and nut a few things out; such as what is with El Cuckoo's interest in
gunnera manicata, and is it something we should be worrying about?
On more practical considerations, I have been scouring the running calendars here and finding quite a few decent races in some nice parts of Australia that could well come in handy over the next few months as I
pretend to prepare for the P2P. I might be able to squeeze in a few more races yet. Certainly this year will be better placed for races than any of the last few. The demands on regular interstate travel have largely lapsed for me this year, freeing me to up to instead slot in a few races here and there. So I really should make the effort. Would
love to make the effort in fact! So here goes.
First up race is the local 10km jaunt on April 3. I might get through that one before tackling anything significantly longer. I need quite a few more easy miles in my legs before subjecting the old knees to longer race conditions. Gentle running is the order of the day for a while I think. That said, I do tend to get a bit carried away, especially when it's all going quite well. We'll see...
*
At Coles New World Supermarket, Glenorchy, Tasmania circa 1970 for anyone vaguely (and worryingly) interested about it.
Point to Pinnacle - it begins!
