Upon my word, when I just arrived in Manchester, I barely saw any runners in the street. These days, and especially this spring, the city is swarming with men and women of all ages and sportive apparel, counting miles and shedding sweat. You may say they’re getting ready to a Tesco Run or a BUPA Great Manchester Run, but when there’re no sporting competitions coming up they’re still running. Shall we say that Manchester is rapidly coming to lead a healthy lifestyle? I believe so.
I usually stumble into runners or see them through my bus’s window on my way back from work. The runners:
- are of different ages, nationalities, and genders;
- run alone or in pairs;
- sometimes run with dogs on the lead (normally they follow the dog, but sometimes it’s vice versa);
- sometimes run with a rucksack (in Ancient Greece, during the Olympic Games, one of the racing competitions would see an athlete running in full army ammunition. I don’t know if those who run with rucksacks are familiar with this fact, but their running manner dates back to quite awhile ago, as we see);
- sometimes wear sunglasses;
- sometimes wear baseball hats;
- sometimes wear long tracking bottoms;
- or knee-long leggings;
- or really short shorts (may I note that usually the men who wear (micro) shorts have got really nice long legs);
Do I run? I’m not a fan of running, I must admit. I love skiing, that’s true, but running sounds anything but inspiring. I recently ran to the train station after work and was gasping for breath all the time while on the train. But ten years ago, when I just started my studies at the Moscow State University, I had had lessons in Physical Education. Our teacher was a fantastic woman: she’d just had a baby, so she was keen to get back into shape as soon as possible. We had no choice, but to follow her. Our lessons were in the morning, and on a couple of occasions we ran down the wet slippery slope from the Observation Deck opposite the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium. The lessons were at 10 am, and by then the Observation Deck would be crowded with tourists and souvenir vendors. To this day I’m wondering if any of them had taken photos of a group of Russian girls, jogging, sprinting and cautiously moving down the hill towards the Moskva river…