This year I’ve run more, and further, than I’ve cycled so far. Then again, I’ve been running since I was a mere strip of a lad. I’ve been quite demoralised at the ongoing attempts to ‘sex up’ running into a marketeers game. It’s fundamentally simple - although other people may choose to keep shorts for less than my 20+ year habit;)
Some bad things about running:
- being offered the chance to go on a beginners trail running event that included a ‘safe’ low level route with bands, entertainment and feed stations along its 10km. £50 to be made miserable by the presence of people and noise and not even to get up on the fell. Pure marketing b*llsh*t.
- the ever increasing cost of road races and the charities that associate themselves, often abusively, with the longer ones
- the marketing driven increases in the price of shoes and stuff
- the bizarre fact that at 185cm and 9kg more than I weighed 25 years ago I have shrunk from large to medium when buying tops
- my right hamstring this afternoon
Good things about running:
- going for a run
- heading out in the woods or on the fells for an easy run
- getting out early, or late, and watching the day change
- smelling the wild garlic and all the seasons
- wind, rain, snow, sun, heat and cold, light and dark
- running hard and blowing away the cobwebs of a stressful working day
- feeling depleted after a long run on a cold winters day, particularly if you’ve overdone the food and drink for a couple of days beforehand
- my wife says I’m nicer when I run!!
As Dave says, the Nike Vaporfly shoes make a bigger difference than the gap between runners. It’s a shame really, but that’s just the money end of the sport. It doesn’t have to be like that for the rest of us. There’s a constant marketing drive to make us feel we need that stuff to ‘maximise’ our potential, but for most of us that doesn’t matter and we’re better served by enjoying it I reckon. I do have to admit to an interest in stuff, but I’m long past my Pb days.