It's about the love of it....

Another run done and another day fitter... easy from home today around Kangaroo View and out past the Eagle's Nest. Just enjoyed the solitude.

Spoke with Radar and he is in his element up at Falls. At the present time I am extremely envious of his location. No distractions, similar minded people doing what they love doing...Running

Herb Elliot to have pushed so hard must have loved what he did...?? Seen here pipping Merv Lincoln. maybe the closet he ever came to being beaten.

I was often asked why I ran. The simplest answer and the only answer was and still is " Because I loved to run"... It certainly was not because I was good at it because early on This was far from the case. I was often last or at the very least at the back of the field. BUT I just loved the feeling of running as fast or as long as I could. Obviously because I enjoyed it so much I tried to do more of it and as a result of that I developed a talent, well a bit of a talent , in the sport.

It is only now as an adult in their early forties that I have come to realise that I lost that connection with my running at some stage. I lost the reason I ran. It is true that you need to set goals be that to run for ten minutes or get out every day or just find time to run but at some stage this goal became the only reason for doing it. The goal by itself is not enough to keep you doing it. you need to have the passion for doing it and together the goal and the passion support one another... It is true that you can continue to run with just the passion but the same cannot be said for the reverse. with just a goal when it gets tough or too hard its the passion that gets you out the door. " Desire and passion far more than talent are the essential ingredients to achieving success in sport" For some that success may be the simple fact of getting out and running.

I have just read in the 2011 January edition of "Runner's World" an article about Georgie Clark. The article is titled : Just a normal girl (who likes to run a bit) by Jonathan Beverly. Georgie had an amazing talent at a very Young age. In fact she ran in the Sydney Olympics and made the semi finals of the 1500m as a 16 year old. Georgie loved running but their came a point in time (and I am paraphrasing here) where the goals and targets became the driving point for her running and she lost the passion. Georgie says in the article " I always would look back to why I started to run. It was for the pure reason that I loved it, for the freedom and the simplicity of it" She goes on to say " I felt like it was so complex, every time you go to Europe, and you're doing all this - living in London, chilling and spending hours a day trying to fill in while you decide when to run in the morning and run at night. It's just not that time-consuming, running. It just stressed me out that I was not fulfilling other areas in my life." Interesting comments from someone with obviously amazing talent however if we examine the girl , the runner, we find that Georgie got into running because she enjoyed it. I was fortunate to meet Georgie in Leonora one year and having read this article some peices came together. She was obvioulsy a person with a great deal of talent and love of the sport or action of running but she seemed uncomfortable in the limelight and the surroundings of the hype that it brought. She appeared a little guarded and I guess that what she was getting at . She loved the running but was more at home in her own town with her own friends running her own agenda..... I am just glad she ahs rediscovered her passion and found a coach who can nurture that... Good luck Georgie

Look at yourself and examine why we do most things in our lives. The answer most always is "Because its something I enjoy doing."

Never lose sight of that and you will surely achieve everything that you set out to do in your running. The wombat warrior discovered this when I stopped running and realised how much it was a part of me and how much I actually missed the simple action of running. Did I love winning or achieving PBs , of course, but I also enjoyed getting out there....

The passion enables us to develop the drive that in some cases has us setting goals that may lead to greatness. The important thing is that greatness is many things for different people.... Never lose sight of your passion and you will run forever.....

Hey jas... Don't worry about your knees, just run..

Barrel on wombats