A runner's little helper

It was like Brief Encounter but without the repressed English emotions or perhaps it was more like the song Strangers in the Night except we were not exchanging glances.  In fact we resolutely kept our gazes forward.

The other night I ran with a stranger and it was a brief but extremely welcomed encounter.  I was heading into the last 3k of my 10k circuit in the park.  It was hot and humid and I was tiring and overheating.  I was determined to finish it running not walking when quite by chance I fell into step with another runner.  We were roughly the same height and build and it turned out a matching pace.  So for the next 2k we ran together.  Not looking at each other or acknowledging that we were but we knew we were running together.  We held back if one of us got caught behind people and we sped up to avoid obstacles.

What I have discovered about running

As you know I started to run seriously last August.  This was when it all fell into place and I realised that running was something that I both enjoyed and could probably be good at if I applied myself.

Since then I have been running regularly and outside and on Sunday I made one of my more startling running discoveries.  I hate running on a treadmill.  I really do.  I ran on one for an hour because a: I needed to get a ‘long’ run in (T-6 days until my first race) and b: the weather wasn’t sympathetic to me running outside (too hot) so Mr Lapin (aka The Fitter One) and I went to the gym to pound the treadmill together. 

What I discovered was that running on the treadmill really did not seem like running at all.  Yes I had chosen one of the machines that had a fan to try and give the illusion of movement.  Yes I had brought headphones to watch television but even season 2 of Hawaii 5-0 wasn’t distraction enough from the realisation that running on a treadmill isn’t really running.  You are moving but you are not really doing anything…