Buzzing

I am an addict.

Before I started out on this venture I was among the majority who regard “joggers” with a silent pity and contempt. Clearly from the agonised looks on their faces and the strenuous puffing sounds they emit the activity cannot possibly be enjoyable.

I was rather more in awe of runners. The guy I met skiing who had done almost every major Marathon on the planet - including London and New York - some more than once. He told me he just had to run every day. Well he was tall and skinny and to my way of thinking build like a runner. Nifty skier too.

Another exception to my theory was my Service colleagues who were required to meet minimum physical standards to keep their job. They ran most lunchtimes to maintain a certain level of fitness by regular exercise rather than lapse and then work extra hard to get it back again. Being stuck in offices as desk jockeys that was a real risk for them.

As an idle youth outrun, outgunned and generally out-sported by my schoolmates - among whom I was always the youngest if not the smallest - I was never athletic, or even fit. Consequently the Forces never had a lasting appeal. Other than the uniform for attracting the girls. In those days the USP for recruitment was - in the words of Monty Python - “For the Sport and the Travel, Sah”.

But now my jogging has taken a serious turn - and I find that I must get out several times a week. Rather like my former colleagues I don’t want to lose the level of fitness I have gained. For one thing it feels better than the previous fat(ter) me.

So I have signed up for 2 more Half Marathons - Bristol this month and Bath again next year. Don’t worry , I am not asking for sponsorship.

Not yet.

Getting a buzz from running

Alas! in truth the man but chang'd his mind,

Perhaps was sick, in love, or had not din'd. - Pope