Friday Finds is a regular feature in which I collate and share interesting articles and posts on running/health/fitness which I’ve read recently. Some might be inspiring, some might be scientific, some might provoke debate. All are things I’ve found in some way thought-provoking.
Happy Friday! I hope you’ve had a good week. It’s pretty stormy here right now so I’ll be hunkering down for the night and keeping cosy, which gives me plenty of time to write this post and give you some reading material.
Let’s begin with an update on a story I recently shared about the London marathon and happily a positive change has been made to the policy surrounding guide runners. Now, those who take part to support visually impaired runners will receive a medal as well as a chip time so their marathon achievement is recognised. Good news for those who selflessly take on this role.
On the subject of London, you might enjoy this analysis of some of the Strava data on the 2018 event. I do love a bit of data, and this confirms what we likely already know – the fastest marathoners run further and more often in training than those with slower finish times. Simple, huh!
With that done, there’s now going to be a definite theme to my remaining Finds this week: animals. Following last week’s story of the women who ran most of a marathon carrying an abandoned puppy, I came across a number of other stories featuring animals. First, something in a similar vein. The story of how elite runner Stephanie Pezzullo was “adopted” by an abandoned dog she encountered during a training run is just beautiful. I feel sad that the dog wasn’t wanted by its previous owners, but it brings joy to my heart to know that she found just the right person to give her the love she deserves.
Sticking with dogs, it seems that some runners in the New York City half marathon will be making history as the first to complete without a human guide…because the event has become the first long-distance race to allow the use of guide dogs for visually impaired runners. Even better, the article suggests that as official participants, the dogs will also earn a race medal. That only seems fair!
And finally, you may already have caught this week’s big story around running and animals, but in this one the animal sadly didn’t come off so well. In a quite startling story, a runner in Colorado was attacked by a young mountain lion and managed to kill it in order to protect himself. It is sad that this happened to the big cat, but I do totally understand why it was necessary. I know how scared I was that time I was attacked by a buzzard, so this must have been terrifying!
Happy reading,
The Running Princess
Thanks for the interesting reading!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is good that guide runners will get a medal now- it seems all the negative publicity worked for once!
The thought of coming across a mountain lion is so terrifying- a fox has made me jump before but nothing as scary as a buzzard!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The buzzard is about a mile from my front door and I’ve still never been back on that route since it happened!
LikeLike
Blimey, imagine being attacked by a lion mid-run. Jeeze.
I think that’s so good about the guide runners getting a medal. Good work London Marathon!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Attacked by a lion and the runner didn’t even take the time to pop some MT kit on it 😂. In all seriousness though, it must have been terrifying.
LikeLike
Pingback: Friday Finds – 15th February | The Running Princess
Pingback: Friday Finds – 22nd March | The Running Princess