{"id":614,"date":"2024-12-19T10:03:27","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T15:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=614"},"modified":"2024-12-19T10:03:27","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T15:03:27","slug":"if-wed-been-intended-to-walk-running-shoes-wouldnt-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=614","title":{"rendered":"If We’d Been Intended to Walk, Running Shoes Wouldn’t Exist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allow me to make my point straight out by wickedly misquoting a sometime hero of mine, Colin Fletcher,<\/p>\n

I had better admit right away that walking can in the end become an addiction, and that it is then as deadly as heroin…In this final stage it remains a (delectable) madness.<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 The New Complete Walker<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Our victimized author has essentially said it all.\u00a0 Walking is:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. a) deadly and<\/li>\n
  2. b) madness.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Each year, as the season of ice and snow o’ertakes our streets, I am reminded of these truths.\u00a0 Despite its geographic venue (firmly in the “snow belt”), Stratford has staunchly embraced a, shall I say conservative approach to shifting of same.\u00a0 In short the city fathers generally adopt a wait and see posture \u2014 wait<\/em> to see if it snows and see<\/em> how long it takes to melt \u2014 before earmarking hard cash for its removal.\u00a0 The upshot, to the chagrin of the pedestrian population is that of having their very foundation literally and progressively threatened as winter wears on and the layers build beneath their feet.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I observe young and old, hale and infirm, inching their ways along the streets clearly fearful of raising a boot more than a centimetre or two from the surface lest they become fodder for the local orthopaedic surgeon.\u00a0 The strutters, the striders, the brisk walkers, all reduced to tentative shufflers.\u00a0 All that is except the runners!\u00a0 Forward progress may be somewhat attenuated \u2014 from plant and push off to plant and slide (a sort of variation on the old two steps forward, one back theme) \u2014 but the stride goes on.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is this mere cockiness, hubris, a stubborn runner’s arrogance, a refusal to accept the realities of the season?\u00a0 I think not.\u00a0 More likely it is the conceit afforded the experienced.\u00a0 Walkers tumble and fall; runners’ don’t.\u00a0 Ipso facto, it is, quite simply safer to run than to walk!<\/em>\u00a0 What proof, you ask?\u00a0 Poll any radiology department in mid-January as the clientele wait patiently to have this limb or that X-rayed.\u00a0 “Excuse me madam.\u00a0 Just how did that nasty fracture occur?.”\u00a0 “Well, young man (running is not the only conceit), my feet went right out from under me as I stepped out the front door.”\u00a0 Or query the runner regarding the torn hamstring: “Damnedest thing, just stepped in a hole catching the bus.”\u00a0 Ever tried walking<\/em> a cross country course?\u00a0 Better you should run, tumble and recover your feet unscathed than risk six weeks in a cast, the victim of a bracing stroll in the winter bush.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So as the salt stains creep up the back of your tights and the shoes become crusty and crystalline, stride proudly and sure-footedly, forsake that tentative gait, secure in the knowledge that you are<\/em> protected and will<\/em> remain erect.\u00a0 Or to misquote the Ventures and that timeless tune of their’s: Run, Don’t Walk!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Allow me to make my point straight out by wickedly misquoting a sometime hero of mine, Colin Fletcher, I had better admit right away that walking can in the end become an addiction, and that it is then as deadly as heroin…In this final stage it remains a (delectable) madness.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":615,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions\/615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}