Sunday, July 7, 2013

The Scatterbrained Runner Ventures Into Blogging

It seems that everyone into running these days have some sort of a blog; the most popular ones get their authors running gear freebies for churning out abominably-written and biased shoe reviews and colorless race reports (there are good ones, yes; sadly, not one of them is local), which got me thinking: why not give it a go myself? While many of these bloggers I’m sure run faster and longer than I can (at present), they're better off leaving their feet tip-tapping on pavement, not fingers on the keyboard--and in the past week or so, a curious experience at the death and burial of an in-law for some reason goaded me to write about it (the urge was so strong; I felt it while in the midst of that experience), and I was pleased with the effort well enough to see that I had not lost it, that I just needed the urge to frigging communicate- something that I had not felt since the days of absent wandering in college (someday I will have to write about what I think drove the muse away). But well, well, it looks like the she is back and I feel in my bones that we’re on to something here.

Corporate freebies? Not likely.

Nike, Adidas, Saucony, Merrell, etc. will never ever, ever know that I exist. Nobody will ever give me a pair of shoes to test and review. And anyway, I’m not sure I’m qualified to do so. I am thus forever condemned to sporting goods warehouses and factory outlets for my gear. Fine. Minimalism? I can run in my Aces until its heel-to-toe drop becomes zero. I can run in my only pair of serious running shorts (I do have two other pairs, but they’re not made for running and absorb sweat, becoming too heavy for anything over ten kilometers) until my balls bust through the liner, my Body Glide is a tub of petroleum jelly, and I’m now on the lookout on where I can buy bungee cord in the inevitability that the one holding the bottle in place on my hydration belt snaps.

But we are on to something here. It is a given that I will run until I no longer can. But now I find myself writing, communicating--I find myself with something to say. Most of it will probably be, in one way or another, related to running. Substance, however, is doubtful and not to be sought for.


Strange that it was a death that reawakened the urge. 

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