Wednesday 8 June 2016

Let's Talk About...

fitness. More specifically, running. Yep, let’s talk about running, mainly mid-life-crisis-driven-weekend-runner (and sometimes during the week, too). I realised this was an epidemic when at my former school a fifty-something colleague told me: “You know what I really enjoy about picking up exercise again? That I get to buy and wear all this fantastic gear!

And what gear! There’s the hundred-quid Garmin watch that measures heart rate, calories and movement.  The base layers that promise “to manage your moisture” (which sounds like a line from a porn film). The Adidas/Nike Run Bottle Belt. The list goes on.

Let’s talk about when “jogging” became “running”. A change so subtle that I never noticed it. One minute I was talking about “jogging” back in uni more than twenty years ago, the next minute I was discussing the miles I had “run”.


Counting the miles and the pennies

Running (or jogging) is probably the most democratic of sport activities. Or, at least it used to be. After all, you just put your old trainers on and run. On the street, in the park, on gravel, on tarmac, it did not matter; it was your body and mind working together. No wonder, corporations did not make much money from jogging before.

That has all changed in the last ten to fifteen years. I leave it to the specialists, the sociologists, psychologists and stand-up comedians to do the analysis as to why there is as much money in flogging running gear as there is in selling football kits. One thing I know: running has become sexy.

Understand that this is not sexy in relation to sexual intercourse. This is sexy as in "look sexy". We want to be seen running. This new approach is not gender-specific. Both men and women spend vast amounts of money on gadgetry and performance-enhancing gels and food. And you know what? Yours truly is part of that group. There is no way I am going to get up on my high horse. That horse has already run off and left me behind (probably with its own £400 GPS watch).

In my defence all I will say is that in order to complete my recent marathon I had to follow a strict training regime, the like of which I had never done before. Still, my Run Media Arm Pocket was a luxury. If I am going to be completely honest I have not spent thousands of pounds in my running gear. However, I know that the main reason for that is that I have not got those thousands of pounds to spend. Otherwise...

I can understand how breaking into a new pair of Lycra jogging shorts or purchasing a £20 set of Climaheat Gloves make the average John and Joanna Public feel more accomplished, more focused, better prepared, more efficient. I have had the same adrenaline rush. My run becomes more effective, or at least I think it does. In reality it is nothing more than the equivalent of a sugar rush. Shopping as an “upper”.

Let’s talk about fitness and more specifically about running. Or, as we used to say, back in the day, jogging. Simple, basic and easy. Put your trainers on. Go to the local park and do a few laps around it. After all, even Pheidippides managed the 42 kilometres between Marathon and Athens. True, he died as he delivered the message he had been tasked with. Who knows? Perhaps, if he had had a hydration rucksack with a few energy gels in it to help him along the way the outcome would have been different.

© 2016

Next Post: “Saturday Evenings: Stay In, Sit Up and Switch On”, to be published on Saturday 11th June at 6pm (GMT)

18 comments:

  1. I love to take long walks in nature, but personally I am not into running. However, I think both of these activities are beneficial to our mental and physical well-being.

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  2. Walking is my limit. And I enjoy it.
    Someday I will see a runner who looks like they are having fun. A runner over the age of about twelve who looks like they are having fun.

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  3. Good shoes is all you need. Screw the rest of the money wasting. Heck, screw running, jogging, whatever. Walking is more my endeavor. That and the gym. The cat likes running though haha

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  4. My hat is off to you for running. It is hard work. I never was a runner or jogger. Cycling was my love when I was able. Now I hobble from desk to couch, those days are long gone. But your article sure made me smile, especially about all the gear people "need" these days to run.

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  5. You are so funny! I'm the one walker (bad knees) in a family of runners. My British husband still calls it jogging, but our kids are super fast. My son founded his college running club and has no fancy gear beyond good trail running shoes and a headlamp for night runs. How did your marathon go?

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  6. I always took Pheidippides death as a warning :)

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  7. I can assure you that running is NOT sexy, at least it isn't when I do it, or so I've been told.

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  8. Every leisure/recreational activity gets caught up in faddishness and hype sooner or later, I guess. I always have been a runner, never a jogger, and I have spent considerable time running during my life. It has been for practical reasons, rather than simple enjoyment, although I do enjoy it and especially love running at night and watching the stars move/change with the seasons. (Until recently, I generally have lived far from city lights.) I prefer running through woodlands, on or off trails, and am more inclined to go for a mile or two or three jaunt combined with wind sprints before and after, rather than ever-increasing distances.

    Anyway, you can have the fancy gear, CiL. Dare I say boots and jeans/cutoffs suit me fine in a practical sense most of the time, along with full winter regalia when the temperatures require it .... there is nothing better than running on a frozen lake under a full moon and listening to the ice and the water beneath it "talk."

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  9. So true - the same could be said of going to aerobics or fitness classes...

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  10. I bet it would have been a different ending indeed. :)

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  11. Hi ACIL - well done on the marathon .. and yes I believe you'd need to train methodically and regularly for that - good for you - and clothes - they seem to help the elite athletes - and the scientists can glean different ways to do things - which may not help clothes etc, but could lead to other scientific breakthroughs ... my running days are over ... enjoy yours - cheers Hilary

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  12. Democratic, yes - though there is research to say that almost all women who run/jog have experienced name-calling and obscene suggestions while they are out. I know of someone who was so upset by the comments from a group of young men outside a pub that she has given up. Women need a thick skin more than the gear.

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  13. I was debating whether to blog about my keep fit views but I think I'd better keep my thoughts to myself. Why can't people just run or walk to keep fit. Why do they have to have gadgets to tell them how many steps they've done in a day/week/month. I blame the i-phone for stirring things up. Still, I guess it's each to their own. However, marathon runners are a different matter, they have real purpose!

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  14. Very funny discourse about running (or it is jogging! :)) I too wonder if a water bottle or a gel pack would have helped poor Pheidippides in his marathon run!

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  15. This made me giggle. But then, I hate running. And jogging. :)

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  16. I walk for exercise though I can when necessary sprint for a bus

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  17. Once upon a time, I loved to run at the gym. But I liked running sprints... and moving as fast as I comfortably could. Long distance running has never been my cuppa tea. Heck, nowadays, any kind of running isn't my thing, and trust me, not ALL people look "sexy" running.

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  18. I run two hours everyday and m a vegan
    http://shilpachandrasekheran.blogspot.ae/?m=1

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