PLANS FOR THE LONG RUN...

AN economist is the last person you'd think of when running, but John Maynard Keynes has been on my mind lately. I am seriously considering extending my running distance and making a dash (well, more like a labored trot by the end of it, anyway) for the half marathon - 21 km. Now, that would be quite a long run and if I recall right, Keynes had said, 'In the long run, we are all dead'. Uh Oh!

Emboldened by my two successful runs over 10km and regular running practice, it is only logical to think of extendinng the distance and making a leap to the next level. The catch? The next 'level' is a 110% jump in distance over my current maximum. Ouch! I am still confident of running the distance, though, just not
confident if I will be standing afterwards. And the other thing that has been bugging is a study that has come out lately suggesting that running long distances may actually be detrimental to cardiac health. So much for running for a healthy heart! “In our study,” say the German researchers who studied 108 marathon runners, “regular marathon running seems not to protect runners” from coronary artery disease. “In fact,” they continued, “we even cannot exclude the possibility that exercise to this degree has deleterious effects on coronary arteries.” Yeah, whatever!

And why should all these petty considerations come in the way of enjoying a bit of a dare anyway. What's life without a few risks? (An insurers dream, if you ask me!) There is a certain sense of rebirth in pushing your body to limits you didn't know existed, feeling spent and then regenerating fresh out of it. I may have said this before, but the 'life force' you feel after a good, long run is incredible! And what about the knee (once I cross 50), the heart (after crossing 40) and the rest of the joints? Well, who really cares. After all, in the long run, we are all dead, anyway!