Me & the Road

For years I was one of those people who never excercised for pleasure! I did absolutely nothing...nada...not a blip.....not even in school! I think once Mr. Philpott gave me a go at training for the school football team but after the first training session that was the end of me!!!
I just never bothered with that kind of thing. I always hated team sports growing up....never followed any soccer teams like the other kids in school. I always hated their stupid fanaticism with soccer....drove me crazy it did ...that taunting of rival fans in the classroom on a monday morning...WHY? Just didn't float my boat...there were other fellas like me who disliked this kind of fanatic behaviour...so they ususally were the ones I hung out with!! I was never encouraged to do sports as a kid....not that I was awkward or anything like that ....sports just never entered into my world!!
I could have been a great sportsman if I was given that chance...encouraged to achieve....shown what it could be like to be the best at something...no, it never happened in my house...Jack never bothered with sport in our house ...it was up to us!!! Maybe he probably knew it didn't excite me...saw my reaction as a young child to this stupid game.....maybe he knew my limitations in that regard!!
But one thing that never, ever, ever was encouraged throughout my time at school was athletics....not a sausage!! It was usually the GAA fellas who were chosen for these events!! To think that now I have this insane drive in me to run is amazing...It's like a drug...maybe it comes as a suprise but its like I've discovered a whole new way of life!!
It all seemed to take off when I discovered that my brothers actually were decent enough runners at the Ballycotton 10 mile race in April 2008...Since then I've been on a mission to get up to speed with them and if at all possible surpass their efforts!! Hopefully by April 2009 in Ballycotton I will not be afraid to step up and be counted!! Hopefully I will be just as good as my brothers and maybe do well in the process!!
Apart from all that, running makes you feel good ...it makes want to get out in the open...go to places you wouldn't normally go....last week I went running by the river Lee in places I hadn't been in years!! Before running came along I was lost...I had no hobbies of worth really. I never thought that running would be one of my hobbies in life. And it might just save my life. This is something that I will hopefully be doing till the day I die...God willing!! .....................Who would have thought that at 35 years of age I would be jogging up to 6 miles with a view to doing 10 miles in the next 2 months!! Life IS full of suprises!!
I'm suprised because I never contemplated doing anything like this before....it must come with age....definitely an older coming of age kind of thing....Now, if I see other people running on the road I want to be there with them....I'm jealous...especially if I haven't run for awhile! I seem to notice more people running on the roads....maybe these people were always there plodding away but I never noticed them until now ...weird I know...it's as if I'm Alice looking through the looking glass for the first time.....Chritopher Columbus on that famous voyage of discovery.....Hillary on the highest peak....."here comes Daly around the long corner...I'd know that style of running anywhere...he's left the main pack well behind...not long to go in this 2010 New York City Marathon...he looks so comfortable even at this stageand what a time......this man is a champion in the making.........!!!!!"
Maybe????