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I get bored of being pigeon-holed by my running.

People go:

“if you run so much you must be”:

• “a health freak”
• “injured all the time”
• “super-competitive”

People imagine runners as dull, health-obsessed and monk-like in our training.  In fact this only really describes elite runners at certain periods of training.  In fact a lot of running clubs describe themselves as “drinkers with a running problem”.  Get ready to change your expectations…

1. We are always injured

I’ve been a “little bit” injured in 5 years of very serious running.  And when I say “a little bit” I mean that I was still logging 80km a week of marathon training.  It was just hurting a little at times.  There are a lot of runners (such as ) that log consistent ridiculous training with absolutely no injury niggles whatsoever.  The reality is that anything that you will do a lot of will put strain on your body.  I remember my guitar teacher back in Melbourne yelling at me when I slouched with the guitar: “If you wan’t to play guitar for life you need to sit properly; else you will destroy your back.” Running is no exception.

2. We watch what we eat

If you’ve ever spent time with hardcore cross-country runners you’ll understand that this just simply isn’t true. There are races that are famous in the cross-country calendar for the fatty fry-up that is traditionally eaten afterwards.  The truth is, that people that run 5-7 times a week (like me), don’t really watch what they eat very closely at all, because our bodies are like giant furnaces!  When my girlfriend and myself cook food we cook a 4-person portion and I have 3 of them.  Usually we do the same with desert.  I cooked a Moroccan chicken casserole for my girlfriend and her parents.  They all took one piece of chicken each.  I took 3.  Then had 2 more.  I guess I do watch what I eat… I watch it to make sure there is enough of it.  Then if there isn’t I go and get more.

3. We are obsessed with health and fitness

My friend Ed is really into core and leg strengthening exercises.  He gets given these brutal calf, thigh and quadriceps routines that go for 45 minutes that make him look like he is auditioning for a Western the next day.  Me and my runner friends stand and watch him:

Jon: “Ah, that one looks like a killer on the calves…”

Me: “Ah, Jon, that’s a quadricep.”

Jon: “Whatever.”

Dave: “I thought a quadricep was a kind of stretch?”

This one just isn’t true at all!  Although most runners I know will “lay off the booze a bit” when training for a big marathon, on the whole most runners are pretty eager to let their hair down when not running.  Although to be fair, we aren’t very good drinkers.  A combination of a fast metabolism, low body weight and a lack of proper “training” for drinking alcohol means that we are very “lightweight” when it comes to holding our own down the pub.  Just like you wouldn’t recommend that your heavy drinking friend start his running with a heavy interval session, you should probably “ease into the drinking” as well…

5. We get up early

I hate getting up early.  And what is more, I can’t stand people that get up early.. and even worse… actually want to talk to you in the morning!   I’ve been running seriously for 5 years and I think I’ve got up early to go running about 20 times; mostly for early morning races.  When I’m liaising with Martin and Tom from Marathon Talk they often reply to my emails at 5:20am (they have young children).  That kind of thing just chills me to the bone… I’m aware that there are people awake at that time; I’ve just never really been there to see it…  I mean, getting up nice and early, having a nutritious breakfast and smashing out the miles before work sounds like it would be brilliant, but so would looking like Ryan Gosling! And for me, both are about as likely to happen…

6. We follow running

I remember doing an interval session with my friend Chris and asking him what he thought of Mo Farah’s big win on the weekend:

“I didn’t watch it.”

was Chris’s reply.  I said:

“But you’re a runner?”

“Yes, I like to participate in running.  That is why I am a runner; because I can get out and do it myself… It doesn’t mean I necessarily want to watch it on TV!”

So there you have it, we’re not fitness, nutrition and clean-living freaks.  We don’t know much about anything except running, and some of us aren’t even fans or running!