Sounds Of An Elite Endurance Athlete

Okay again I have no idea why, but this morning I found myself running the Green Point Park Run here in Cape Town yet again. I am not going to go into all the details all over again, it was much the same old, same old, fat dogs, chatting ladies and telephone number statistic’s. I can however report with some joy that today I did manage to overtake someone, okay she was an old lady pushing a pram, but hey I overtook someone. Sadly my joy was short lived after I saw she was actually pushing a shopping trolley and was more than likely heading for the shops and not in this run at all.

But the real news of this weeks run, was the fact that I decided to try out a new tactic. My brilliant idea and it was brilliant make not bones about it, was to run on the opposite side of the road to all the other runners. In this way I could run along blissfully unaware of all the runners who were overtaking me, thus preventing any de-motivation setting in. Well as a tactic it worked, I really was blissfully unaware of all the other runners overtaking me, in fact it worked that well that I managed to find myself a long way off the back of the pack. I wasn’t de-motivated, just last.

In the final 100 meters I heard this panting over my right shoulder, it was a sound I knew well. The sound of someone struggling to get breath, labouring to keep the bodies basic functions going, whilst slowly jogging to the end of the run. Without looking I said to my fellow struggling jogger, “you sound exactly how I feel”, I got no reply and to be honest I wasn’t expecting one. You see elite endurance athletes at this level who push their bodies to the extreme cannot spare energy to talk. Then to my right the source of the familiar sound jogged past me, it was a Bull Dog type animal panting and slobbering as he made a bee line for the finishing line, dragging his owner behind him.