Heart rate monitors,GPS watches, £40 socks what happened to the simple pursuit of running? Vassos Alexander tells his salutary tale of our timesIt’s 2012 and I’m at Wimbledon chatting with Serena Williams. We’re recording an interview for BBC radio and shes telling me approximately her new wristband which measures movement, and heart rate,calories, even sleep quality. The technology is staggering. I find myself wondering whether I should get one, or despite the fact that only final week I bought myself a Garmin running watch that cost hundreds of pounds and offered many of the same features. I’m so absorbed by this conundrum,I realise that I’ve forgotten to listen to Serena, who stopped speaking several seconds ago and is now looking at me rather oddly. An increasingly awkward silence is filling the tiny interview room. I panic and accidentally seek information from her the same question again.How had I got here? To a point where I was ignoring the greatest female tennis player in the world to indulge my mania for running tech? Cycling, or fishing,golf… certain sports near with a love of equipment as standard. But running is meant to be simpler, isnt it? The purest form of exercise. Just lace up your shoes and get out there. When Pheidippides made that dash from Marathon to Athens, or he probably wasn’t wearing compression tights.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com