Blog On Other Blogs (BOOBs)

Other People’s Blogs

This post is about some Running Blogs that I like.
If you have been following this blog you will not be surprised to see that I have selected 5.

In no particular order they are:-

• Run For Your Life - by Old Running Fox
• Skeddadle - by The Knickernator
• Confessions of a Virgin Half Marathon Runner - by Kelly
• Hruns Random Ramblings - By Hrun
• He who trains trains.- by I Am Leg End aka Taffy

Why These?
Of all the millions of blogs out there in the bloggersphere why these five?

In outline:-

• Four of them cover other issues too - they are not just about running
• Three of them are “blokeish” (That is sort of the opposite of “Elvish” as in Lord Of The Rings)
• Two of them are particularly inspirational for me - either due to the age of the runner or the distances covered
• None are the same - all are different.

Run For Your Life
This guy is an inspiration. He only took up running in his fifties and is now in his seventies. He runs farther, faster, more often, and over hillier terrain, than me.

The quality of the writing as well as the content, the pictures and layout, make this a great blog to follow. The writer’s love of life and landscape shine through. Of Fox’s pithy comments I particularly enjoy “The older I get the better I used to be”.

Skedaddle  

Running and life from a young female point of view. I love the many asides into other aspects of life, the universe, and everything. The universe described is a gender-gap and generation-gap away from that with which I am familiar.

In some ways this blog is also "blokish" - but in the manner of the modern woman unconsciously and assuredly exercising her equality.  Another reason why I like the blog.

When I was a lad in order to understand what women want I had to go to literature. Nowadays it is all out there on the www - and anything is possible. No wonder these days young blokes feel inadequate! (Thinks - it was ever thus.) 

Confessions of a Virgin Half Marathon Runner 
This running blog has some clever training and mileage “widgets” for those of us who like to compare data - which leaves the text free of geeky stuff and with space for the literate bits.

The running gag of this site - sorry no way of avoiding the pun - is the A to Z of “Running Terms - Good and Bad”. Hours of fun reading these imaginative definitions.

The title of the blog reveals a pitfall that I too fell into. When the half-marathon has been completed should the blog be abandoned and replaced by an entirely new one? Or get Branson as a sponsor?

Hrun’s Random Ramblings
The running blog that contains cake. Well lots of them contain references to cake but this one has recipes for cake. The author is modern metro-man able and willing to take on housework and cooking.

Bicycles, swimming, and sports injuries also get mentioned - but not necessarily in the same post. Sometimes I find he has written something that I have been thinking.

“A gadget is defined by my dad as something you didn't know you needed until you got it, with a plug on.” 

And no - I am not his dad.

He Who Trains Trains
This is the blog that will run and run. Like the author. A bloke who has been battered by life and is fighting back by running - and running. Stopped drinking and smoking - just like that. Milestones, targets, benchmarks - he has set himself the works. And doing it. 5000 miles within a year - done! Heading for 6k.

Obsessive? Maybe.  Work-life balance appears to be “Run-Work-Run. This guy does two runs a day every day. Nobody can match him for mileage and not slow either. He tops the mileage for the day/week/month/year on Runners Forum. And in due course will top the highest ever. Unless a ‘bot gets there first.

It can be catching. One Monday morning I did a 12 mile run and so topped the mileage for the week. My record lasted until the evening by which time Taff had done his second run of the day.

So - a blog that inspires awe rather than emulation.