The tortoise and the hare . . . .

Of course, I always look for advise, read the tips, listen to the voices of experience and seek the views of those who know about the topic in question. Do I heed the advise? Well, er . . not very often. One of the first tips mentioned on http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/news/article.asp?UAN=815 is, be a tortoise, not a hare. I saw that and took note way back at the beginning.

So, when I started running, I thought that if I was going to make the effort of putting one foot in front of the other in a sort of energetic fashion, it makes sense to put that foot as far in front of the other as I can. Simple. I figured that this may require a teensy bit more energy but, you get to your destination in half the time. That makes good sense, doesn't it?

Well, no. I have got that completely wrong. As I have been explaining in the previous two posts, Luke suggested I try the slower approach. My excuse so far is that I didn't realise that I was actually trying to run too fast but yesterday evening I set out to run slowly. EUREKA! It works. I passed my usual slow down to a walk places with ease and was just about to pass the first 1km mark (1km!) when I was interrupted by the phone ringing. I pulled it out of my glove, (I know, this wounds weird, but I take it in my glove thinking that if I collapse, at least I can call an ambulance) and tried to press the answer button with my gloves still on. I could see that it was Teresa calling and wondered why on earth she would need to reach me. It stopped ringing, but I thought I had better call back, so I de-gloved and tried to call. The line was busy. Tried the other number, no reply. So, I gave up, walked a little further and then started my slow running again. This took me about another 1km or just under and I turned around and walked a little way. Teresa called back to tell me that the guy who is quoting for the new dining room floor had arrived to measure up as agreed and I had forgotten he was coming. Hey ho.

Started running again and miraculously ran about 1.5, maybe 2km all the way back without stopping, and feeling as if I could carry on if I wanted. Amazing!

So, thank you Luke for your words of wisdom. Apologies to everybody whose advise I probably ignored. And, my advise to any oldies out there is, take it v-e-r-y, v-e-r-y S-L-O-W-L-Y. This is echoed by Candice, another reluctant runner at http://www.reluctantrunner.net/2008/11/. Candice's story is an inspiration. I urge any wannabe runners out there to read it. Candice is running huge distances. Maybe it's easier in a huge country like South Africa.

Anyway, I think that, at last, I am on my way.