Were you ever a good runner?

FX_Munkee

I've always been more aquatic.
And even then only 100m sprinting.

Haych

No! Was always a crap runner, hated it with a passion, still do.  Can't run for toffee these days, not even if I was being chased with malicious intent.

Swimming and cycling I was always pretty good at but anything weight bearing solely on my legs I am dreadful at.

Pity I can't use that excuse for my guitar playing!

DrJazzTap

I keep thinking about taking it up. I used to be able to get to about three or four miles. But id feel like my chest was going to explode. 
I love cycling, but part of me wants to don a grey tracksuit and pretend I'm Rocky balboa.

snakemanStoo

I never got caught, so maybe

stickyfiddle

I was always terrible at long distance but was pretty good over 200 and 400m when I was 15. I could do about 350 at proper full speed by which point I was usually well ahead of everyone

mike_l

Running for running, no, absolutely not.
Running as part of a sport, yes.
I used to play rugby and football,  so short bursts rather than a footrace or distance.
Athletics wise, had I been interested I *could* (according to the school PE teachers) have done javelin, shot put and/or discus to county level without bother.
Shame I hated athletics.
Same with tennis.

lloyd

I was ok as a kid at long distance, but too lazy to really try.

I used to do ok in local/county cross country stuff, but never trained for it apart from in school PE lessons.

I really got into running about 8 years ago and was running about 40 miles a week but stopped after a holiday which was daft, should really get back into it as its a real head clearer for me and doing those sort of distances you can eat what you like and you're not putting weight on.

ESBlonde

Sprinter. No distance runner for sure. Like you I'm in the second half century and find cycling a decent exercise without damage to joints from pounding the roads. You don't need a fancy machine, a steady ride is all you need although you could be more competitive.

Nitefly

lloyd said:

I was ok as a kid at long distance, but too lazy to really try.

I used to do ok in local/county cross country stuff, but never trained for it apart from in school PE lessons.

Me too, although 50 years ago I was Blackpool Schools Under-17 Cross Country champion! 

Don't think I could run to the end of the street now...

marcus449

I'm 22, got a bit addicted to running last year and got my 10K down to around 38mins 2-3 times a week. No club or anything just for exercise in the evenings. 

Will update this post in 10 years time. 

tone1

I've done 3 half Marathons and loads of 10k's but it's getting harder..but I was never a good runner

Heartfeltdawn

Nope. I was always shit at running. Big long tendons, no pace and stamina. But in mitigation I could bowl all day, had leg breaks and googlies in the arsenal, and I can bowl the doosra legally. Go me. 

lloyd

Heartfeltdawn said:

I can bowl the doosra legally. Go me. 

They all say that....

Heartfeltdawn

lloyd said:

They all say that....

I was tested years ago. Back around 16/17, three different county coaches asked me how I bowled my conventional leg break. They all thought I had some ability to dislocate my arm at the right shoulder. It's just weird flexibility. If you go through the action in slow motion, it's actually impossible to bend your arm and "throw" a leg break. Any bend in the arm overdoes the wrist and you flop out googles. Now taking that action and bowling it out of the front of the hand, I could still get the movement off the pitch. I had the chance prior to and during uni to have my action filmed in slow motion with the best gear available at the time from behind, side on, and front on. The arm was dead straight. Definitely no Ajmal here, not even Jack Taylor of Gloucestershire (who I'm glad finally got done again this year for he was blatantly fucking chucking last year). 

Philly_Q

I was always a terrible runner, no aptitude for it at all.  I did a couple of 10k runs a few years ago and absolutely hated the training.  To make matters worse I can't run on any kind of hard surface because it gives me shin splints and fucks up my lower back (no doubt down to bad running technique, but I don't know how to fix that).

My cardio-vascular fitness nowadays is pretty good, but that's down to an exercise bike (very unexciting, I know).

TimmyO

I used to run 100m in under 11s, and long jump over 6.5m

I suspect I'd achieve double and half respectively now. 

beed84

No. Ten yards and that's me done.  Having said that I did come first in the 800 metres at school once, which was partly due to the fact the most of the other kids started off in the wrong direction. Or was that me? I really dunno.

axisus

Heartfeltdawn said:

lloyd said:

They all say that....

I was tested years ago. Back around 16/17, three different county coaches asked me how I bowled my conventional leg break. They all thought I had some ability to dislocate my arm at the right shoulder. It's just weird flexibility. If you go through the action in slow motion, it's actually impossible to bend your arm and "throw" a leg break. Any bend in the arm overdoes the wrist and you flop out googles. Now taking that action and bowling it out of the front of the hand, I could still get the movement off the pitch. I had the chance prior to and during uni to have my action filmed in slow motion with the best gear available at the time from behind, side on, and front on. The arm was dead straight. Definitely no Ajmal here, not even Jack Taylor of Gloucestershire (who I'm glad finally got done again this year for he was blatantly fucking chucking last year). 

Fascinating. I have no actual clue what a doosra is though?

digitalscream

I was a pretty decent 100m, 400m and 800m runner at school (11.8s, 51.4s, 2:00 dead respectively) - I used to run as a guest runner at meets and beat everybody from the other schools, but I couldn't even get in our school team. That's what happens when you're running against Iwan Thomas every time...

As an aside, it still grinds my gears that I never got below 2:00 for the 800m. I had a bad knee injury from rugby in my first year at university which put me out for a year, and I gave up because I was something of a moody youth about the whole thing. Took up Karate instead, got disqualified for breaking somebody's nose at my first BUSA championships (he ran onto my fist, seriously) and decided that competitive sport was just not for me.

Heartfeltdawn

axisus said:

Fascinating. I have no actual clue what a doosra is though?

Ahhhh. So uttering phrases like 'Bowling Saqqy bhai, bowling' in a Moin Khan-style flood won't help matters at all?