Running in to the new year

For the last couple of years I've really wanted to run in to the new year; that is start a run on 31st December,  and finish it 1st January.

It just sounds so... cool...

Unfortunately, due to some form of injury or another I've never quite managed it, and the romantic notion of it has never slipped my mind or left me (or how back to the future-esque it MUST feel)

Another thing I've been keen on is to run on Christmas day - get up, watch my family open their presents, and then go bounding out the door; rosy red cheeks glowing and white mist drifting upwards with every exhale, and a huge smile planted on my face...

Well, I managed the Christmas day run, and finally, finally, it looks like I'm going to run in to the new year - if I can stay awake!

It probably sounds like such a little thing, but in a year when I've not been able to don my running club's vest to race even once, I've learned to appreciate the little things.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone, I hope you all got exactly what you wished for :)

Put downs to pick you up and other self centred sentiments

I go to the gym, I go and I lift weights, I do it partly as a form of cross training to my running, and partly to try and put a bit of muscle on my waif like body... My gym has instructors who hold the full complement of Les Mills classes, I've done them, and have enjoyed them. They're a great way to workout without the need to think about what you're going to do in your latest workout.

However, a new Les Mills promotional poster has appeared in the gym; it reads: "Alone we're weak, together we're strong"

Photo credit: All the Les Mills

I'm sure this phrase has gone through all the usual marketing channels and was voted as the newest-and-bestest phrase to make you want to participate in a Les Mills class. However, I think it smacks of self righteousness and today's more and more apparent view of needing to put one group/person/thing down in order to make yourself feel superior....

It's like the phrases "real women have curves" and "real men grow beards" - as if being anything different makes you less than everyone else. It (to use a possibly scouse phrase) does my head in; why feel that in order to make yourself feel better you have to put others down? I'm pretty sure Arnold (checks google for correct spelling) Schwarzenegger didn't regularly complete group classes on his way to becoming Mr. Universe at the age of 20, and then Mr. Olympia 7 times, but I'm sure the folks at Les Mills wouldn't call him weak!

Similarly with the whole curves/skinny/beard/clean shaven 'thang, if you're happy with how & who you are, or take satisfaction in doing something which you believes makes you a better you, take your satisfaction from that, not from thinking you're better for doing something someone else hasn't,  because,  there will always, always, be someone who has done something more than what you have done or are doing...