Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 64, November 2014 | Page 6

Ma letters Have YOUR SAY Got something on your mind that you want to share, a burning question you want answered, or a good story to tell? Then send it to [email protected]. (Note that some letters have been shortened due to space limitations.) WINNING LETT ER I’LL BE BACK Whilst I was reading your August issue, I saw the reader survey about runners cycling for cross-training purposes and thought it was rather ironic. But for your benefit I’ll go back some years. I have always loved running. I would even run between shots on the golf course if there was little other traffic there! (You can easily finish 18 holes in under two hours doing that.) And for the last six years trail running has been my favourite sporting activity by a country mile. BRING ON COMRADES 2015 The Ed meets Coach Laurie at the 2014 Comrades Expo. Some three years ago I decided to buy myself a mountain bike for the sole purpose of cross-training for my trail running. I soon discovered that MTB’ing was also great fun, but I stayed true to my running roots and never took MTB’ing up as a sport, for I have never had a chain break or had a leaking tyre or any other technical issue whilst running, bar the odd cramp or fall – but you get more of them in MTB’ing anyway. It was very difficult to accept this fate, but I just had to. In the meantime, I underwent four weeks of physiotherapy and eight sessions with a biokineticist to help the healing process. At this present moment I still cannot run due to the discomfort I experience when trying to go any faster than walking pace. Some fellow runners I have subsequently spoken to have told me it took them up to 12 months to start running again, which obviously is NOT what I want to hear. Sometimes I get negative and feel like sulking about my situation, but that won’t help me one bit. And that’s not the spirit of a runner. So, however frustrating it