Running on the beach

June 30th, 2006

I’m away on vacation with my family in the South West of England this week and eating “holiday type” food and being more sedentary than usual, as there is no opportunity to go to a gym down here, I was starting to feel like some exercise.

We spent the day at the wonderful Saunton sands beach, today and by early afternoon I really was feeling like doing something active. The three miles of flat sandy beach beckoned so I couldn’t resist just setting off for a run.

No high technology running shoes, or treadmills festooned with heart rate monitors, incline controls and fine speed adjustments - this was just me running barefoot along a beautiful sandy beach on a hot and sunny day.

It was magnificent!

I probably only ran for 2.5 miles in total, but just jogging along the waters edge, past the group of people who had found a stranded lobster, along further until the place where I started was just a shimmering apparition in the heat haze and onto totally deserted beach, I felt that this was what being reasonably fit is all about.

The ability to just take off like that without fear of health issues, without help from technology, without getting out of breath.

Exercise for exercise’s sake.

Entry Filed under: Fitness