|
04-09-2006, 10:42 AM,
|
|
|
stillwaddler
Moderator
|
Posts: 737
Threads: 114
Joined: Dec 2003
|
|
|
August has been and gone
and not much running to report. I've been plodding along, but without much enthusiasm or purpose. I find it very difficult to believe that I completed the FLM in March. Ho Hum. Alzheimers have written to me to see if I want a gold bond place for next year...er, no. maybe 2008, maybe I'll do it again in 2012 to celebrate my sixtieth.
The only race I have pencilled in is the Stockport 10 miler in December (ooh those hills) so I suppose I've got plenty of time to pull my socks up a bit. As MrSW is starting a new job in October and I no longer get a lift to work I have dusted off my bike and have been peddling. I have effectively de-mountanised said bicycle and turned it into a hybrid - higher handle bars, sit up and beg seating arrangement,splendid soft gel saddle, it even has a rather lovely wicker basket that I bought in Belgium.
When I'm not peddling I'm walking, so how come I'm carrying all this extra blubber?? Maybe a diet is in order, new territory for me, never had to worry about such things before. Is it one of the delights of the mid-fifties? Of course you young lithsome creatures are blissfully unaware of such things.:o
|
|
|
|
12-09-2006, 01:56 PM,
|
|
|
stillwaddler
Moderator
|
Posts: 737
Threads: 114
Joined: Dec 2003
|
|
|
August has been and gone
Due to some stomach cramps and general malaise. Back to it at lunchtime today with a not quite 4 miler from work, was OK, not quite as hard as I expected - but I did chicken out and walked up the last hill past the fire station.
Was musing on the way round why I still don't feel like a "real" runner? Maybe because I started late ( I've ony been at it about 5 years)? Maybe because I haven't entered hundreds of races - although I've done my fair share of halfs and the FLM? Maybe it's because I don't belong to a club? Other people I see out running look like real runners, they all seem to have lean thighs and an air of purpose about them. Maybe they don't feel "real" either?
On a different subject, I recently looked after two cats belonging to my stand partner from the orchestra I play in whilst she was in Canada, and bless her, she bought me a gorgeous running jacket back, it's made by Running Room, I checked them out on the web, they have a great website but don't deliver to the Uk :-( Shame because they have some rather natty looking overshoes for running in icy conditions. Maybe I'll put in an order for the next time she goes...
|
|
|
|
12-09-2006, 02:14 PM,
|
|
|
Sweder
Twittenista
|
Posts: 6,577
Threads: 420
Joined: Nov 2004
|
|
|
August has been and gone
Hi SW. Man I know what you mean about not feeling like a 'real' runner.
I kind of got over it when Andy told me I could run 100 miles per week but I'd still have a Guinness belly . . . I too started late - 2003 was my first year off the couch. I think this has some bearing on it - we have no photos of former svelt selves hurtling past hoards of puffing flounderers.
I also read the diaries and BB and JohnB and Mr Blue and I think 'blimey, I'll never be in that class'. BUT - and here's the good news - it doesn't matter. Not really. All the people I know who don't run think of me as a runner. Only today I was telling someone about last night's hash run.
'3 miles?' he said. 'Huh - that's nothing to you, is it?'
Kinda made me smile.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
|
|
|
|
12-09-2006, 11:35 PM,
|
|
|
August has been and gone
You folks are definitely real runners. I am definitely not a real runner, so I speak with some authority 
In any case, who cares what you are tagged, and by whom? None of us here are running for social status, are we? Sometimes I think we forget (and it's easy to do when surrounded by tens of thousands of other runners in a major race) that only a tiny percentage of the population can run at all, let alone make the effort to train regularly. If you must compare yourself, compare down the scale of running endeavour rather than look up at the elite - the view is much more satisfying behind you 
|
|
|
|
13-09-2006, 08:03 AM,
|
|
|
Sweder
Twittenista
|
Posts: 6,577
Threads: 420
Joined: Nov 2004
|
|
August has been and gone
Mid Life Crisis Man Wrote:the view is much more satisfying behind you
Aah, so you've seen SW in her three-quarter lycra joggers then
I have a friend and former work colleague based in Fort Worth, Texas. She runs occasional charity 5k's and is extremely self-effacing about her efforts, yet she's extremely supportive of me. When I was having moments of self-doubt before my first FLM (wholly well founded as it turned out) she quoted statistics on the percentage of US citizens that ever take part in a marathon. I forget the figure, but it was somewhere close to (or less than) 0.1%.
I'd say that qualifies everyone here, wreckless hash-busting antipodeans included, as real runners
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
|
|
|
|
August has been and gone
