Why run?

BBC News website today has an item about a study of why people run. It seems that men and women tend to have different motivations, with the former being more competitive and the latter more likely to run for health reasons.

For me it's a mixture of the two. The only competition is with myself, so I'm inteested to know what my time is for a particular race or course. But that's really only a way of assessing my relative fitness. Am I much slower than I was five years ago - or am I more or less the same? And the bottom line is that running - for me - is about keeping healthy. I can still run 26 miles, even at my age. So my heart, lungs and legs are all in pretty good shape.

That said, this morning's 5 1/2 miles reminded me just how hard I find 'early' runs - I'm better later in the day. But it was good to be out in the sun. Fingers crossed for decent weather next Sunday.