I blog - therefore I run?

It was on a 30km run a few weeks back I was explaining what was happening with thenext.run shirts with my running buddy for the morning Shaun. I was banging on about the 365 days of testing I had planned with our testing group and also how my training was going for my next event Birdy’s Backyard Ultra. Shaun being the race director and promoter of USWA events, was gracious enough to feign interest for the entire discussion and also offered constructive advice for both my training and my running shirt venture.

Still smiling after the run!

Whilst talking about running whilst running is certainly a not new thing, the discussion did come to an unexpected point where I noted how I was loving writing about what was going on with my running world, even if I was just writing the blog for myself. thenext.run blog has had one or two big days in terms of readers on the site but generally is lucky if it gets a one or two visitors a day.

My prose certainly isn’t award winning and whilst I had promising grades for English in junior high school by the time I was a senior I was very lucky to pass with a C. Sorry Mrs Degnian, my mind was too busy thinking about impressing girls with burnouts on the top oval on Friday night in my 1979 VG Valiant.

I didn’t get blogs. I missed the blogging craze of the early 2000s . Why would I or anyone else for that matter be interested in the inane natterings of some nobody on the other side of the country or world. These people weren’t experts in the field. I took the opinion that blogging was just about putting up some content so you could serve advertisements and make 3 cents for every 1000 clicks. The internet got started whilst I was at uni, I saw the rise and fall of dial-up modem based electronic bulletin boards, the internet and blogging was just the next iteration.

Being in the IT industry I consume technical blogs quite readily however I have no affection or affiliation to any specific blog. I just google the problem I am trying to solve and then click on the link to the technical blog that looks like it has the right command to solve my problem (I studied at university for 4 years to learn this I’ll note). I don’t know who wrote the blog and I am certainly not clicking like or upvote.

So dear reader if writing isn’t my gift, my skill is poor and I don’t like blogs why do I find it most enjoyable to sit down and put fingers to keyboard on this blog?

I’ve been training heavily ( a heavy load for me anyway) in preparation for Birdy’s, in the midst of the evil colds of winter but my levels of motivation to train and the subsequent kms logged are through the roof compared to the same time last year. I think this is due to the blogging, Facebook and Instagram updates. Be it excitement or more likely pride because I am putting my training on display through the blog - either way I’ve never gotten out of bed so easily or gone for a late night run before I started thenext.run.

My focus with training plans and nutrition is most improved too. I am ensuring I eat properly before and after runs, and taking time to rest as well. I been planning my race for weeks and working on getting my son and wife to get involved too.

As I have been looking for ideas and places to publish, I’ve been getting more involved in the running communities socials as well and this has meant I’ve made new friends, run some runs I would never have gotten to on my own and also become aware of just how far reaching the running bug is.

When I tell people why I am trying to get my running shirt designs out there I always note that it’s just another way to talk about running. Running is for many a passion, and when your passionate about something anything is possible.

I would have never thought I would be enjoying writing but I now just see it as part of my running, as part of my thinking about thenext.run and that is something I want to do more.

Hopefully it’s also the secret sauce to running a PB for distance at Birdy’s this coming week. See you there!