Last month I completed Midnattsloppet, as some of you might remember. Midnattsloppet is a 10k run late evening in Stockholm (or other cities in Sweden). Preparing for that run got me into more serious training, even though this month I didn’t get the shoes on as much as I wanted to.
With me it’s like I need the first 3 to 4 kilometres to warm up. After that distance I get the feeling that I can run as long as I like – not necessarily hugely fast, but about 10k should by now always be achievable, even though I rarely make my round that long. Sometimes one is contemplating, do I take the longer round today? Or shall I take the shorter alternative? Well, I usually decide depending on what I fancy. But then, sometimes, something on the way happens that makes you going the extra mile, so to speak.

During a hot summer evening (I hate running in really hot weather) I was close to giving up and walk the last 500 metres. But then there was another runner crossing my path, seemingly boasting with energy and just whizzed past me. Effect on me? Well, I did run even the last stretch and afterwards I felt so happy that I did it! Physically it was possible, so it really is only in your head!

Today’s run went superwell, nice and relaxed, sunshine, and I had all the time in the world, no “musts” waiting to be done at home. So I decided to for the longer round straight from the start. When there was about a third of my round left, I met an old fellow being out and about with his walker, holding on to it tightly while pushing it forward. When I went past him, he took a moment to rest and shouted “Right you do, going running on such a beautiful day! Really good job!!”, smiling broadly at me, waving with one hand. I shouted back a “Thanks” and “Good job yourself to get out and enjoy this beautiful weather!” and off we went, each in our own direction. It made me laugh and glad to meet a person probably about 80 years old, getting that enthusiastic about my humble jogging round. Nice it was, and yeah, I reckon that acknowledgement did put a bit of an extra spring into my steps. Such a difference to most peeps one meets on the way, lots of which looking at one like something from a different planet approaching. OK, probably that assumption is triggered by the colour of my face matching the one of my T-shirt (red) … Anyway. Sometimes it’s small events like these that make you go the extra mile, or just a wee bit faster than you probably would have gone otherwise.

Happy Sunday! 🙂