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What does running do for you?


Last week, during a professional development session I was asked to draw a picture of a future where I could do whatever I wanted, so I said I would love to write. The coach said "Could you do that now?" "So why don't you?" I had a bagful of the usual excuses: I don't have time; I don't have anything to write about; I don't know how to, etc. but I said "I'll try". Since I had that conversation, I've spent a lot of time, mostly during my runs, thinking of a suitable topic I could exploit, and finally something came up.

So here I am, a week later, dusting off the cobwebs of this blog and trying to get the creative juices running to write about the only thing (or one of the very few things)  that fills my brains in between doses of work, sleep and living in general.

Social life

Over the last 8 or 9 years, my whole life has been so dominated by running that I wouldn't know what to do without it. Thanks to it, my social life is non-existent - as any dedicated runner can tell you.  But that's not a bad thing! I mean, hey I'm not twenty-something anymore so let's not kid ourselves thinking that, given the chance, I'd be out partying 4 nights a week.  I'd probably be watching football beer in hand so, the outcome is much better this way.

Finances

Let's not talk about finances. Surely, the amount of money I spend on running clothes and marathons (fees, flights, accommodation, food and pressies) would pay to keep up a small village for a year. Incidentally, I just read about a guy who went $9,000 (USD) into debt to run the Tokyo marathon only to find out it had been cancelled because of the Coronavirus. All of the sudden I don't feel so bad. Let's go buy some more clothes.

Running has had positive impact in my life

This is the serious part of my post. The physical and mental benefits of running are obvious and have been documented ad nauseam elsewhere, so I won't go into detail in here. Maybe some other time I will. Instead, I will talk about one indirect benefit running has brought to my life.

Because of my running, my oldest son picked up athletics about 5 years ago and now he's competing at the national level for his age group. He had previously played rugby but his heart wasn't really in it. Still, I insisted he had to do some sport and running seems to be his thing. Like all teenagers, he has his moments when he cannot be bothered and that's where dad/coach/motivator kicks in and we have a chat about the importance of sport as a proxy for life, the importance of setting goals and working towards them. It seems like some of this message is sticking and that is important in its own right.

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