Anniversaries

I just wanted to note that on the 7th anniversary of having been arrested during a long run at lunchtime, on my wife's birthday, I went out and did a hard, 40 minute high tempo run on some of the same roads and managed to come back in one piece and not arrested.

It was in the twenties with a bitter wind, and I was running in bike shorts and a singlet. I learned something on this run (this was back on February 5th).

For years I'd been thinking that I was much tougher when I was a teenager, that I used to run in shorts and a t-shirt. This is back in say, 1982 and I seemed to be invincible to the cold.

And here I was, so far behind schedule that I didn't have time to go to the gym and run on the treadmill and also didn't have proper gear to run outside. And I ran outside anyway.

At first, I was suffering and then the skin on my legs suddenly got this 'I'm going to kind of shut down and leave you to this running thing' and it struck me.

I wasn't tough in 1982. I was poor, and running gear technology was not where it is now. There wasn't the fine selection of tights, gloves and jackets we have today (and I run in). And what there was, I couldn't afford to buy. I'm not saying I didn't own a wool cap and mittens, but that was about all I owned. Tights ? Huh ? Tight ?

I wasn't tough. I was just poor.


I'm glad I can afford good running gear now....