Win Lose or Draw

AKA The Green-Eyed Monster

It has been a long winter, dear reader.  The cross country season was a bit of a right off personally, and Post-Xmas I seem to have been in an endless cycle of injuries, illness and grumpiness which hasn’t been fun for anyone involved.

That’s one of the reasons the blog has been a bit quiet. Whilst I know I’m not adverse to the odd grumble *cough*, six months of moaning is unpleasant to write and unpleasant to read.

One thing I would like to talk about though is a hardship we can seem to go through about this time of year. When the green shoots of Spring the start appearing, we all like to dust off those racing flats, don our vet-style short shorts and get out there and get racing. It feels good to be putting effort in at events we’ve spent many long dark months training for.

However, when you’ve been injured for a prolonged period, the weekends from late Feb onwards can be absolute bloody torture. Sitting there scowling with your leg raised and shivering under an ice pack, we see the endless parade off results coming in over social media in a blanket coverage that would have made the Luftwaffe proud. Admittedly, some are quite restrained, giving a time and not much else. Others are Facebook High-fiving for hours, maybe even days. When you’re friends with a lot of runners, Sundays can be tiring!

I have to ask is it just me that sees the endless stream of PBs flooding in and ends up just feeling, well shit. One of the joys of running is that we can celebrate the achievements of others, which is often down to a smidgen of talent and A LOT of hard work. The biggest difference between running and rowing, as I may have mentioned before, is that at the finish line, everyone is a winner.

I think it is hardest when the results are from those who you usually train with and are achieving times that you want to achieve.  Why is it that others winning can feel like you losing?

It seems a crazy question to ask, the rest of us will have our day at some point, and all runners are only one step away from their next injury. But it is hard enduring 6 weeks of “How the bloody hell did they run that quick!!” The answer is, of course, training, which some of us haven’t been able to do a lot off.

Before I appear like a complete twat, I do wish everyone well with their running, and I’m not sitting at home plotting anyone’s downfall cackling maniacally (much). In fact, I’ve turned it around into – If they can do it, so can I.

I've got some races coming up...and there's a job to do.

Like the Murphys…