Forlorn search for that first jogger wearing a big smile

FOR starters, I have nothing against joggers, walkers, cyclists or swimmers, and I’m still managing to tick about three of those boxes myself, but I am a little perplexed, at never through the course of my lifetime, having witnessed a jogger ever wearing a smile on their faces.

Come to think of it, in a time when I used to take on the Saturday morning Park Runs at Rinville, there was never even the remotest inclination on my part to attempt a grin, as one grim effort after another was made to beat the 30 minute ‘Berlin Wall’ barrier for the five kilometre trek.

Joggers don’t really smile because during the course of their five, eight- or ten-kilometre circuits, they tend to be consumed with absorbing that rather harsh meeting of feet with a hard surface that seems to apply a rigorous test of endurance to ankle, knee and hip joints – and particularly so if the birthdays are beginning to mount up.

A number of years back, a very competent but quietly spoken surgeon at the Bons, who, to use to his own words, ‘cleaned out’ one of my knee cartilages, said that his general advice was for over-50s not to jog or run regularly on hard surfaces. “Walk, swim and cycle – at least one of them every day if you can,” was his advice, and I’m inclined to think that those were solid enough words.

Everywhere I go though, I can’t seem to escape those addicts of the road who boast about how fast they can complete a 10k or on how they plan to run in one of the national marathon events.

The last time, I had to walk the 2.5km from the local tavern, every step seemed pained and ponderously slow. By the time, I had reached home the warmth and mirth of the inn, had been completely obliterated by a cantankerous knee, little armpits of sweat, and the inevitable West of Ireland rain shower. And I didn’t feel even the remotest inclination to smile either.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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