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Reflection on runners

MeanderingMammal
MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
in Social Groups
I stay in London a couple of nights per week due to work, and generally I use the opportunity to get my midweek runs in. It's good after a long, generally fairly intense, day to clear my head. Last night I was doing a fairly short session and was struck by the different people out there in the evening. Whilst London is a pretty insular place, the majority of runners are pretty friendly to one another.

Some are clearly on the run commute, laden with rucsacs, some clutching mobile phones, and some wearing an array of GPS. Tee shirts are a litany of achievement, from the Standard Chartered 5K in the City, to the Royal Parks 10K, Cardiff Half, Edinburgh Marathon Festival and with much respect to the runner I regularly see in his South Downs Way 100mi top. The pack all wearing their Sweatshop Running Club tops, or the Boot Camp doing grid sprints along the Thames path in Battersea Park.

As runners we've no idea whether someone is on day one of C25K, tapering, or on their midweek long run as part of a marathon plan. And it really doesn't matter, we're all just out there.

We make eye contact, smile, or just nod. While we're each out there on our own, we're all part of something much bigger.

Replies

  • kristinegift
    kristinegift Posts: 2,406 Member
    I like this :)<3
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    So true. I love looking at other runners race t-shirts!
  • litsy3
    litsy3 Posts: 783 Member
    On my long run this weekend I passed a boy I know from training out running with his mum. They were both wearing race t-shirts. Later he told me his mum was just starting out with running and was jogging 2.5 miles a couple of times a week. 'But she was wearing a race t-shirt from years ago and looked like a proper runner!' I said. Anyway, it turned out she totally tricked me by wearing one of her son's t-shirts that he'd outgrown. So as Meandering Mammal said: you really can't tell what kind of runner anyone else is and it doesn't matter. :)
  • BetterMike
    BetterMike Posts: 131 Member
    litsy3 wrote: »
    So as Meandering Mammal said: you really can't tell what kind of runner anyone else is and it doesn't matter. :)

    Oh I can tell...They are all awesome!
  • runbabarun
    runbabarun Posts: 89 Member
    I guess one could tell that this runner and his situation were highly extraordinary. :)
    http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_57a3623ae4b0104052a18a86
  • JustSomeEm
    JustSomeEm Posts: 20,267 MFP Moderator
    ^I love that article! Thanks so much for sharing. :)
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    My dog will cope with 5-6km in the woods, but he's got a lousy attention span and loses interest after that.

    :)
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    My dog will cope with 5-6km in the woods, but he's got a lousy attention span and loses interest after that.

    :)

    Currently I am trying to teach my dog to run with me. I am finding this to be the case as well. Some days she is a real trooper and gets in a groove. Other days it's a train wreck from the get go. She's only 10 months old, so I am still giving her the benefit of the doubt. The positive is that when I ask her if she wants to go for a run, she drops everything and heads to the door, so she must be having fun either way!
  • 5512bf
    5512bf Posts: 389 Member
    lporter229 wrote: »
    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    My dog will cope with 5-6km in the woods, but he's got a lousy attention span and loses interest after that.

    :)

    Currently I am trying to teach my dog to run with me. I am finding this to be the case as well. Some days she is a real trooper and gets in a groove. Other days it's a train wreck from the get go. She's only 10 months old, so I am still giving her the benefit of the doubt. The positive is that when I ask her if she wants to go for a run, she drops everything and heads to the door, so she must be having fun either way!

    There is a couple here in town with a dog that runs a lot with them in spring/fall/winter. The husband is a marathon runner and will take the dog, appropriately named "Miles" with him on 12-16 mile dirt road runs as long as the temps are cooler. I'd bet that dog could beat most of us in a Half Marathon since the owner runs in the low 1:20 range.
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
    lporter229 wrote: »
    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    My dog will cope with 5-6km in the woods, but he's got a lousy attention span and loses interest after that.

    :)

    Currently I am trying to teach my dog to run with me. I am finding this to be the case as well. Some days she is a real trooper and gets in a groove. Other days it's a train wreck from the get go. She's only 10 months old, so I am still giving her the benefit of the doubt. The positive is that when I ask her if she wants to go for a run, she drops everything and heads to the door, so she must be having fun either way!

    At 10 months, she's still developing quite a lot, so she'll definitely have good days and bad days as she grows. I wish I was running when my Irish Wolfhound wasn't such an old man. He barely walks a couple of k's these days without wanting a rest :( Our other dog wants to chase things too much to run well with me. I'd end up getting pulled into a tree or a lamp post just because she saw something interesting.

    I love seeing other runners when I'm on my longer weekend runs; how they gear up, guessing their distance by what they've got with them, the sweaty smile and nod as they go past. There are people on my route at home that I could identify by their shoes, but if I walked past them at a supermarket I'd have no idea who they are.

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