Monday 25 January 2016

Burns Night Running Thoughts

I've had the (vegetarian) haggis and have the bottle of Bruichladdich ready to tuck into for Burns Night. Don't think I'll be doing any running, but pleased to see that in Westbrook, Maine (USA) they held a Robert Burns 10k Road Race  in the snow last night with more than 100 runners, some  kilt clad, raising money for a local school:

'"I like Robert Burns a lot," co-director of the 10k, Ned Swain, said as he explained why he chose to name the race after the late poet. "It's a holiday that doesn't have much associated with it aside from haggis and kilts and his poetry. How can you hate that?" (Runners don kilts for Robert Burns 10k)

Not aware of any Burns running poems as such, but I think these lines are inspirational enough for all those who 'drudge an' drive thro' wet and dry': 

'What tho', like commoners of air, 
We wander out, we know not where, 
But either house or hal', 
Yet nature's charms, the hills and woods, 
The sweeping vales, and foaming floods, 
Are free alike to all. 
In days when daisies deck the ground, 
And blackbirds whistle clear, 
With honest joy our hearts will bound, 
To see the coming year...


Think ye, that sic as you and I,
Wha drudge and drive thro' wet and dry,
Wi' never ceasing toil;
Think ye, are we less blest than they,
Wha scarcely tent us in their way,
As hardly worth their while?'




Bagpipes at the finish line (photo from Robert Burns 10k facebook page)


More running related literature:


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