Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Running article in the WSJ

Got up this morning and, as usual, downloaded the Wall Street Journal onto my Kindle.  In addition to the usual news of bank bailouts and auto company restructuring, I saw this title:  Running for Lean Times;  "It's no accident jogging took off in the 1970s."
 
What a fun article about the simple stress-reduction found by runners all over.  About the low-cost, effective fitness afforded by our sport.  About the very funny stories most runners can tell of mishaps along the way.  And, the best paragraph?

Of course, some people "jog" purely for fitness purposes and hate it. This might explain why the French were recently in an uproar after photos surfaced of President Nicolas Sarkozy in shorts and a T-shirt breaking a sweat in the Tuileries. Running is an American activity, the French press claimed, a fascistic act designed to manage and control the body. Not an intellectual pursuit at all. "It is about performance and individualism," one writer wrote, right-wing values antithetical to everything cherished by the country that gave us foie gras.

Persevere.  With or without the duck liver. 

3 comments:

Wes said...

If only the people in Fwance could do away with their bodies... LOL...

Unknown said...

that cracks me up...considering that paris has one of the worlds largest marathons and boasts one of the dozen or so ironman sanctioned full iron triathlons.

Backofpack said...

That was a good article - and yes, a funny attitude for the French. Who'da thunk?