A Runners thoughts

I've been working at Up and Running now for over 12 years.  Through this time I have seen a lot of changes.  Changes in product, changes in customer type, changes in techniques of running and changes in my own running fortune.  Throughout all of this time, one thing has been constant.  My 'passion' for running - warts and all.

For a long time now running seems to have been a major part of my life. As a  teen I ran at school, I was quite good apparently.  In my early 20's I abandoned running, gained weight and lost direction.  In my late 20's I found it again and found some good form (a few good races and pb's).  I then became a father and for 6 years let it slip a little.  I am now  'nearly' a 40 year old man, who has found running again but who's form is something of the past and who's best running is a memory often verbalised as 'my running PB is...', but is only a faded memory that gets further away as time passes by.

So why am I writing this piece now and where does it lead?

Well.  I was thinking as I was sat at my desk one day last week.  I have lived and breathed running for some time.  For 12 years at Up and Running and if you take into account my total running history, more than 1/4 of a century.  I think you will agree that this is a fair amount of running, and as a result I hold not just physical but mental experience/ knowledge of this /running thing.  At this point may I add that  it's not all good!!

One thing however stood out to me.  It's not just my own running experience that I have but everyone else that I have ever come in contact with.  Customers, staff members, suppliers, personal trainers, etc.  In fact anyone who has ever placed one foot in front of the other faster than a walk and with which I have had the pleasure to talk to.

I therefore thought that it would be good from time to time to put this 'experience' down in writing, for any runner (new or old) to read, just in case it may help resolve any issue they have or simply to laugh at.  That was it - the thinking behind a series of blog posts.

Some provisos though need to be made at this point......

Some of the thoughts will be personal and not directly linked to Up and Running's
Some of the thoughts will be commercially based, and will be linked to current thinking on running in its widest sense.
Some of the posts will be purely anecdotal and therefore based on what others have said and therefore difficult to corroborate
Some of them will be light-hearted and not to be taken too seriously.
All of them need to be read with an open mind.
But above all, they are expressed by a runner, from a running perspective and based on running experience.

Anyway there you go.  It may be a regular post, it may be infrequent, but when they come do have a read.  You may pick up something that you have never known that helps you keep on doing the thing that you and I all love.

Running.

JM