Wednesday, 24th March – 32 days to go

No ill effects from pushing it yesterday. It’s another inactive day. One thing from reading the Sam Murphy book is that she advises runners over fifty to only run on alternate days. Studies show that we take longer to recover. Not just me being a lazy bugger then.

I’ve been thinking of having my name on my running vest. People tell me it’s really uplifting to hear your name shouted when you’re really struggling. But it isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Whenever someone shouts “Come on Chris” at a race I’m looking all over the place to see who it is. Imagine that with a load of strangers shouting it; I’d never get anywhere. Then there’s the “Dave factor”; can’t really see me acknowledging a crowd and getting some banter going whilst running, but you are encouraging a two way interaction that could be a distraction. How would I know whether I was getting encouragement from people who know me or just total strangers? What if I was running alongside someone else called Chris and people were shouting encouragement to them not me? I’d be acknowledging their shouts and then feel a right berk when I realised they weren’t shouting for me at all. I went out with someone called Chris (a girl!) for a while and I just couldn’t hack it. It’s not like Sparatcus; I’m Chris and there’s no room for another. Alright, that was thirty years ago, but some things don’t change.

Of course I could get a nickname printed instead of my real name. But I don’t have a nickname. In my late teens and early twenties I had a pretty good nickname that I did my best to live down to. But what was right then certainly isn’t right now and there’s no going back as they say. I could invent a nickname, but how sad would that be? Most people with a nickname that’s not related to their surname have a nickname that refers to some sort of physical anomaly. Whilst I’ve got no shortage of those, it’s not really something I want shouted at me by strangers.

On reflection, I think I’ll pass on the vest name printing thing.