It’s 12:22 on Saturday 24th September 2011 and I’m sat in a friend’s flat in Berlin. At about this time 10 years ago I first set foot in this city, the start of a remarkable journey through European politics, work and further studies that has been a brilliant rollercoaster ride in many ways.
But did I do it all wrong? And am I still doing it all wrong?
I seldom blog about it these days, but sport is important for me as a way to stay healthy and – to a large extent – to stay sane as a freelancer. Haruki Murakami talks about these sorts of things in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. While I do run and cycle to keep fit, inline skating is really my sport…
The Berlin Half Marathon is always the season opener – it took place yesterday. The map and graphs from my GPS watch are below. I’m tremendously happy with the result – 59th position in the fitness category in 41:14, knocking 5 minutes off my previous best, and for the first time averaging more than 30km/h in a race. The next British man was in 670th position, more than 30 minutes slower… Now how much training do I do for the rest of the summer?
Nothing in politics can possibly equal the kick of getting over that finishing line in a personal best time…
http://jonworth.eu/trailrunner-skate/trailrunner/4KDPNTQ.gpx
Dog - CC / Flickr
Right, this is a blog entry that’s going to annoy a lot of people. But I’m very annoyed. So here goes.
I’m totally, utterly and completely sick of dog owners.
Note I am not completely and utterly sick of dogs. I’m not unfriendly towards animals. A dog is a dog. It craps. It barks. It snarls. It chases things. It pees everywhere to mark territory. That’s just how dogs are.
The problem is then with what dog owners do about that.
In the last two weeks I have been doing a lot of sport – running almost every day and yesterday skating along the canal towpath between Delacroix and Buizingen. Dogs and runners / skaters don’t mix very well as dogs think that the runner or skater is some kind of rival, something to be chased and, because it’s going fast it must be either a threat to the dog or it’s something to chase after.
Yesterday was a particular low point when a dog owner let a rather fat boxer dog off its leash and it chased me for more than 200m, snarling the whole way. Thankfully good fitness, 105mm wheels and ceramic bearings in my skates meant I could out-skate the dog. But this is not acceptable. If the dog owner knows his hound is going to chase and endeavour to attack things then the dog must be kept on a leash. It’s not my responsibility to try to predict what someone else’s dog is going to do.
Same in Parc Duden where I run. Loads of dog walkers, all ambling along in large groups, blocking the pathways while nattering away, and completely oblivious to the fact that their dogs go for runners and crap all over the place. Get a grip! Control your damned animals! When I gesticulate and comment to dog owners (in French) they look at me as if I’m from another planet.
Here’s the deal folks. As a skater or a runner I don’t bother you at all if you just have a little spatial awareness and give me about half a metre of space on the 4 metre wide path. Just enough space for me to pass. That’s all. Nothing else. Oh, and the knowledge that your dog is not going to try to attack me, or crap where I am going to run or skate. It’s not that hard, is it?
I’m absolutely stunned – I finished in 70th position (among the ‘fitness’ skaters – i.e. anyone except the absolute pros) in the Berlin Half Marathon inline skating 10 days ago, with a net time of 47:01. I knew the race had been OK – that time is 1 minute slower than my best time, but it was raining and the corners were very slippery and that knocked a couple of minutes off the time for sure… but 70th place! I’m so, so incredibly happy with that, considering there were more than 1000 people starting the race, and 105 places better than my 2009 finish.
Here’s the GPS map of the course, and the video of me crossing the line:
http://jonworth.eu/trailrunner-skate/trailrunner/JA7YFTQ.kml