Vexation!

I read somewhere that people who are disgruntled usually write their letters to the Editor in green ink, so here goes.  OUTRAGED!  PEEVED!  Okay, okay so possibly I am just being sensitive but perhaps I should just tell you what has driven me to this rant.  It's my issue of Run4YL magazine, which I received yesterday and immediately perused.  In the centre pages is their article about their "Gold Coast Five", in which they introduce us to five runners all doing their first Gold Coast Marathon in July.  Great idea.  However, my gripe is that despite them being categorised under headings like, "The Accomplished Fun Runner", "A Work in Progress", "The Casual Flinger" and "The Learner",  every one of them has already clocked a 10km run in 50 mins or under!  Do you know how DIFFICULT` it is to run a 10km in under 50 minutes?  I have been running for four years and the closest I have gotten is 51mins and that's with three training sessions per week.  How can these people truly represent the vast cross-section of runners who will be doing their first marathon?  My immediate reaction was that I am obviously a completely crap runner compared to these five.  I don't know…. I just feel it would have been prudent to possibly feature at least one runner who is not so outstanding, just so the rest of us feel we can relate to this article.  What percentage of marathoners in July will be in the same speed/ability level as these five runners?  Probably about 50% sure, but there are still another 50% of us who are not so fast or capable.  What about us?  One of my run buds this week complained that she felt Run4YL magazine was too elite for her and I argued against this, but this article pretty well screams it out.  I love R4YL because they have published three of my articles but I am compelled to write a letter to the Editor!  In green.   Oh, his name is Daniel GREEN!  

Now, back to black ink and some fashion chat.  This is the latest winter accessory for runners - PJ pants over your Skins at 5am.  Shame we can't really run in them…. can we?  This is my very fast coach, Linda at training yesterday morning (with the sign-on sheet and the car key box).  And as for gruesome, how's this, courtesy of Sporting Images, from Sunday.  One day I WILL not only finish a Marathon but I will get One Good Photo of me running - and sadly, I don't think it will be at the Gold Coast because I am quite sure I will be grimacing.