Okay, so the first one who wants to immediately contradict me, come forward.
Because I, in these days of forced rest, am meditating a lot (and already this makes me tired). And in addition to meditating a lot, I’ve made a list of things that terribly tire me, more than doing a 15-20km run, and on which I challenge you to prove otherwise.
I go in order, from those that lie me down, tiring me “slightly,” to those that just, “Oh my God, what a drag!”
1 . Going out on lunch break to procure food, in case of missing my lunchbox. Beyond the thought of going out, dragging myself through the gray buildings and smog of the busy city streets, what kills me is my colleague, when the day is sunny and she bursts out into a, “Why don’t we walk for a little bit!” There: that really is mental death. Homer’s brain lights up, and I automatically go back to the office. Plagued by a thought of 80-year-old me with a cane taking a post-lunch stroll.
2. Classic scene, at the dinner table or while I am making improbable clay packs. And then there is her: that absolute, irrepressible need for something that is exactly on the opposite side of the room or even in another room and the trajectory that separates us from it. Boring. No one has yet sent me a cv to apply to be an object bearer, but I often visualize them already, ready to thrash around doing up and down with every “clap-clap” of hands. And in my opinion it might even have a future, with the times …
3. Take away trash/paper/plastic/glass. The distance between me and the dumpster is soon measured: 4 flights of stairs, about a dozen steps each + 12 steps on foot + 50m of pure, hard asphalt. But often that distance is a real wall that stands between me and the outside world. Every time I squeeze my eyes tight, and I think the bags teleport themselves out. Or thanks to this injury of mine, I mill about with roommates various motor disability problems, and that’s it. At least until I start running again.
4. Grocery shopping. In general, I hate grocery shopping. Even more I hate doing it if I have to wander like a goldfish up and down the aisles, with people jostling me left and right without finding what I’m bloody well looking for. Sometimes I reflect, and I really think that maybe I travel less when I exercise than when I shop, especially in certain Super – Mega – Giga – Hyper markets. Not to mention then the nice commute home – Supermarket, and vice versa. Here we start talking about important distances.
5. It That sport, that activity that makes me tired even at just lining up the letters that make up its word: swimming. I always think I was born with a nose and nostrils, heck, not gills. And even now as an injured person, at the thought that this is the only way I can prepare for a marathon, I already feel tired. In spite of everything, 4 mornings a week, I straddle my bike and pedal with beady eyes, I arrive at the place of extreme fatigue: the swimming pool.
All this to tell you: before you complain about your next 5km, 10km, 20km effort (hey, don’t exaggerate now!) just think, that there are 5 other things that are far worse.
And enjoy your well-deserved run!
PS: I was going to put “shaving” at the top 5 (or you all, women! I know, yes, perpetual solidarity!) but then for the sake of equality I let it go.