Walk This Way

When I was a fresh-faced 18 year old, I'd just come back from travelling through Europe and moved to Sydney for University, I met a handsome dark-haired fella who's name started with J. [This was my thing for a long time, they were all tall, dark-haired and had various J names.] He was a bit older and sophisticated and knew a lot about film.

A little while into our romance I discovered that not only did he read a lot, have fine taste in food + wine, was hilariously funny, but he also was into jogging. [And he owned boat shoes. I was slightly disconcerted by this but tried to be mature about it. He'd gone to one of those fancy Eastern Suburbs schools, so I assumed the boat shoes were a legacy of that. And sometimes, he did in fact, go out on the harbour so it made sense.]

Anyway, I learnt a lot from him, he influenced and inspired me in many ways. And then one day he suggested we should start training for the famous Sydney City to Surf run.

This was hard for me, before I'd gone overseas I'd been really into kickboxing and used to train probably 5-6 times a week. But at that point in my life I was more into marathon late nights, drinking at the Judgement Bar and dancing at Club 77. You know, getting home when people are normally leaving for work. That sort of thing. Running just ... wasn't going to suit my lifestyle. It wasn't a priority.

Fast forward a few years and here I am, closer in age now to what he was then, and I've found myself getting a bit health-conscious. But I can't be bothered to diet, so exercise has come back into my life. All of last year I was getting up to join a couple of girlfriends with a personal trainer in the park at crazy o'clock in the morning. [Like, sometimes it was still dark.] We were totally hard core about it: trained right through winter, rain or shine, hungover, after late nights, flu-ridden or healthy. No matter what, training went on.

A couple of weeks ago while running along Bondi Beach at 7AM [and I'm on holidays right now!] one of my girlfriends suggested this year we should train for a marathon. Trade in some of our late nights and fondness of cheese and wine for running?? Much to my intense surprise this didn't sound so insane. And now, here we are, researching the various city marathons that happen in Sydney through-out the year. WTF?