So, to this day, when friend meets friend, the word of salute
Is still “Rejoice!”—his word which brought rejoicing indeed.
So is Pheidippides happy forever,—the noble strong man
Who could race like a god, bear the face of a god, whom a god loved so well,
He saw the land saved he had helped to save, and was suffered to tell
Such tidings, yet never decline, but, gloriously as he began,
So to end gloriously—once to shout, thereafter be mute:
“Athens is saved!”—Pheidippides dies in the shout for his meed.
I started running in November 2013 in an effort to lose weight and improve my general wellbeing. It’s been working pretty well. I used to run a fair bit as a teenager, but like a lot of people just stopped during my university years.
I’ve also found I really enjoy it for its own sake, though I’m still pretty slow, having been so unfit that I basically started from scratch. I find I don’t have too much trouble persisting over distance, but building my speed has proven difficult, which informs my choice of trying to run for endurance rather than speed. I’ll never be a sprinter!
I succeeded in running my first half-marathon distance non-stop on 14th June 2014, and a marathon distance on 5th July 2014. One day I’d like to try something crazy like the Tarawera Ultra, but that’s a long way off yet …
I bought some New Balance Ndurance shoes from Shoe Clinic, after doing some testing that showed how my feet strike the ground and figuring out how to compensate for the way they tend to roll coming off it. The shoes suit me really well, and I don’t seem to injure myself nearly as often as I did when I was using cheap shoes from The Warehouse.
I just wear any singlet and shorts that aren’t cotton and don’t chafe. Compression shorts underneath are really good for long runs.
I don’t really mind treadmills, because it helps to have something artificial ensuring you maintain a challenging speed, but I still prefer running outside when I can, mostly to alleviate boredom.