This evening when I left the house to go training, I did not have a good feeling right away.
It may have been the particularly busy working day or the fact that I was not yet 100 per cent over the fatigues of the weekend, but from the first few metres I knew it would not be one of my best performances.
That’s how it is for me, right from the first few metres I could write in black and white what the sensations would be throughout the training and consequently the speed and distance I would be able to keep up.
And so it was, until the last metre in front of the house I was accompanied by that feeling of helplessness of doing something more than the worst outings but I did not lose heart and as they say in these cases, somehow I brought it home anyway.
As I went then I started to think about my motivations for finishing work almost every day, arriving home, getting changed and going out to train instead of relaxing on the couch like many people I know.
At some point the question that went through my head was this: “how many of the people you know go running? and more importantly how many people go running?”
The answer I gave myself was somewhat depressing and, I discovered once I got home and did an internet search, surprisingly optimistic.
I found an article which I quote in part: ‘
In Italy, according to research, running is practised more or less habitually by as many as 6 million people, 55% of whom are men and 45% women. A phenomenon that knows no age divisions: 27% of runners are between 25 and 34 years old, 25% between 35 and 44, 21% between 45 and 54, and a respectable 8% over 55. And that’s not all: for 77% of those surveyed, running is their primary sporting activity, more so than the gym or five-a-side football for boys and Pilates for ladies.
A phenomenon, that of running, which according to experts has boomed as a result of the economic crisis. ‘To start running, you need a good pair of shoes, a medical examination and little else,’ explains Marco Rocca, head of Brooks Italia for 10 years. No other sport requires such a basic and inexpensive level of equipment. Not only that, to be able to do 5 km in a row, the goal of any beginner runner, no special preparation is required. We all know how to run, we all ran as children. Maybe we have forgotten, or we have been on the couch too long. Getting back into running gives us that sense of happiness that we had as children. That’s why the motto we write on our shoe boxes is Run Happy.”
This article actually mentions “as many as 6 million people”.
During my run this evening I would have felt like saying, only 6 million people.
In conclusion as much as I, but also you who are reading this, trained below my capabilities this evening, I trained better than 90% of the Italian population (who chose the couch).
By this I don’t mean that I feel like a superhero, but I would like it if, on bad nights like this, my Garmin had the compassion to tell me: ‘You’ve trained tonight too. Well done. YOU ARE MY HERO!”.
