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What this writer, and just about everyone else fails to grasp is what a self indulgent and useless activity this is--and what a colossal waste of time and energy. All these people spending hours and hours and hours running through the streets, in many cases ruining rather than improving their health. And why?
What if I, a wife and mother of 3, decided that instead of training for a marathon, I would spend 25 hours a week reading novels in a coffee shop. I'd leave all my houshold, work and family responsibilities behind and do something I felt like doing, hour after hour after hour. . . Something of no good to anyone--but of interest only to me. I'd be considered a very selfish person. But marathon running--oh that's somehow morally elevated. Heroic even. What bullshit. It's selfish and self-indulgent and yet another symptom of our vain and shallow society. Skip the running, take half the hours you would have spent destroying your joints and sending your overheated body into convulsions, and go visit people at your local prison, nursing home, homeless shelter, fill-in-the blank. At least then you'd actually have something real to be proud of.
