Sunday, October 11, 2009

I'm an athlete!?!

I'm sitting here amongst the Athletics competitors as we wait to march in the opening ceremony of the 2009 World Masters Games in Sydney. We are told this will be the largest ever parade of competitors anywhere in the world -- Olympics included.

This morning I ran in the 10km Road Race, the first time I have ever done such a thing. Technically, now, I am an athlete.

This is so weird for me, because I've always thought of myself as anything but an athlete. I've played a bit of school and social sport over the years -- played badly, that is -- but that never seemed enough to qualify me as an "athlete". Growing up, I hated to run -- a combination of suffering from both chronic asthma and chronic laziness. Few days were as miserable for me as the school "Athletics Day", when I would be forced to run a humiliatingly atrocious 100 yard "dash" because it was supposed to be good for me. All it ever did was embarass me and remind me that I could never be an athlete.

When I was in my 20s I worked in Saudi Arabia for a couple of years. The fact that there really was no fun to be had there, combined with a very nice cycling and running track along the beachfront where our little studio apartments were situated, led me to take up jogging. Soon, I became addicted to running (there really was *nothing* to do there). So much that I thought I would surely continue to do it once I returned home. But, as soon as I got home I discovered there were other things to do, and that was about that.

Earlier this year I joined a gym in a foolish moment of optimism, deciding I might be able to become a bit healthier. I did get fitter, and enjoyed feeling good. Then, in June, hearing about the World Masters coming to Sydney, I had another foolish moment, thinking I might be able to run on something other than a treadmill. After all, I can't actually do anything, have no particular athletic ability, but I could run, a bit. The challenge was whether I could run 10km.

I changed the focus of my gym work a bit, signed up for the Sydney Running Festival 9km Bridge fun run, followed the training program they provided, ran the fun run and now, after just two months of training, here I am: an athlete. And addicted to running again.

Actually, I think I'm addicted to achieving.

Posted via email from Steve's posterous

Friday, October 09, 2009

Death and Facebook


Just saw this on twitter:


It caught my attention, because a couple of days ago I posted this:


Over at The Punch is a reaction by Lanai Vasek (@newsbee on Twitter) who suggests that things have "gotten out of hand". That there "needs to be some sort of regulation" about bad news such as this being posted on Facebook. I understand the sentiment, but we need to accept some things if we are to remain human as technology reaches further and further into our lives. Regulation of this kind could only be de-humanising, because it seeks to control our emotional responses.

In response I added this comment to the article:



For all the "how would you like it" commenters...

This did happen to me this week: logged on to Facebook to find one friend leaving a message about the death of another. There is no doubt it felt strange compared to hearing it spoken by someone, but the news itself was sadder than the way it was delivered.

Many years ago (before mobile phones and the internet), I was living overseas when I heard about the death of my aunt -- via a letter from my brother which described her funeral. The vagaries of international post had meant his letter arrived before the one from my father with the actual news of her death. *That* was a shock. And I felt so far away, isolated in time as well as space.

Today, I find Facebook and Twitter keep me connected to friends and family spread around the globe in a way that is far more immediate and personal than anything previously. In the past I may have gone months or years without hearing from or about an old friend; now I hear about babies and relationships and all sort of news as it happens. And I like that.

Hearing about deaths is not really that different from hearing about births. In fact, if "bad" news was regulated and I could only get somebody's idea of "good" news via social networks, that would actually be more isolating, less human. It would make social networks a false world. Pleasantville. Eden before the apple -- a world of unknowing.

In the end, I just saw what happened to me this week as a marker. The first time, but not the last, that I will find out such news this way. But life is like that, full of good and bad.