Feelings of Positivity

In the space of an hour, three different feelings created a veritable flood of positivity for me this evening; so I thought I'd share them with you.

The first was brought to me courtesy of my other (he might say better) half, in the form of childish, yet brilliant humour. If you watch home shopping channels, you'll likely have seen a 'revolutionary' toning device called 'The Shake Weight'. The device itself is very simple, you simply shake the weight back and forth, whilst holding it in various positions. In fact, you can see this demonstrated by a nice, toned, lady here. And... there's now a Shake Weight for men... I would like to mention at this point that this is somehow worse... and if you're interested, you can see it demonstrated by a very buff man, with enormous guns... which clearly came from his Shake Weight... here (if you haven't got your sound on, switch it on before you visit this website, whilst saying very loudly "I'll just have a look at this revolutionary new product which is a weight that you shake" just to prevent any adverse embarrassment).

If you have followed these links, you may already understand why we found this product so, childishly, humorous. But, if you're still unsure, it is this South Park parody on the revolutionary 'weight that you shake' advertisement that really pinpoints what is so wrong with the advertising of this product...



And so rude, crude and puerile humour, caused much laughter and invoked feeling number 1: HAPPINESS.

As amused by this as I was, I was still feeling like I wanted to skulk to the safety of the sofa, rather than head out for a run. So, I settled down with my laptop and had a read through some of your Janathon blogs for today. I read: A little of this about a new-found love of morning running... that left her feeling inspired for the rest of the day, as well as wondering whether someone had drugged her overnight; a little of that about a Geeky Dad whose funny pun (we can clearly see where my sense of humour lies) made me giggle and tales of shuttlecocks inspired me; a little of this from a blogger who ran a great 5k in a gym which she had all to herself, despite the fact that it's January(!); and a little of that which describs an unfortunate almost Paula Radcliffe moment that, as runners, we've all experienced to some degree... and if you haven't; you will!

And eventually it was this, little bit of this and that, that caused me to pull on my trainers and provide me with my second feeling: MOTIVATION.

Once out, I realised that it was what I had needed all along. I didn't run far, just a little 3.3 miles. But at the end of the run, I experienced my third feeling. A combination of the right song, at the right moment, with the right state of mind; that feeling that you know so well if you run, because it's why you love to run; it's what causes you to forget your form, your heavy breathing and niggling pain; it makes you feel free, young and euphoric; it makes you run like Pheobe from Friends.

It was my third feeling of positivity...



It was: RUNNER'S HIGH.









Distance: 3.3 miles
Weather: clear and +6 (almost like Summer!)
Feeling: really, really great!
See my run here.

NEXT TIME ON THE MAGATHON: More on the Squirrel Conspiracies