Usually Sundays are reserved for group runs, but due to … circumstances … I ended up running on my own.
Had I been following my typical wimp-out strategy of late I might have pushed through a 8 (possibly 10) klick run, patted myself on the back for getting out and running despite my various barriers, and fell asleep on the couch.
Instead, I’ve committed to doing some serious training in prep for that darned half marathon I signed up for next month. So I found myself nudging myself onward at obvious turn-back points, negotiating both sides of the mental barrier, and ultimately tricking myself past a point of no return … or more appropriately, a point of no point in turning back so you’d better just push on.
I captured a lengthy bit of video which I’ve posted onto YouTube as an unedited “Let’s Run” that you’re welcome to watch … or not … I’d lean towards not if I were you. It’s pretty long. Kinda like a fourteen klick run.
Between a borked iPhone and the temptation to use my new GoPro, I took significantly more video than photos this month, and a couple are even doing respectably on YouTube.
There is a certain weirdness to dragging people along on your hobbies, I get it.
People watch other people play video games.
People watch other people build furniture.
People watch other people eat food.
Maybe people want to watch other people out for a run. It’s not the craziest idea, is it?
I recorded and narrated a second episode of my MagPi Runner series, and gave it a bit more production value in the form of a slightly nicer bumper and lead in, a higher frame-rate on the video quality, and I deliberately was trying to channel a little more mellowed our Bob-Ross-style.
If you’re not one of those people who likes to watch other people do mundane things, you probably won’t get much out of this. If you are… let me know what you think. Share. Subscribe. Do one of those things that other YouTubers are always telling their audience to do.
In the vast scheme of all the running folks out there, my little corner of social sharing is probably the least interesting. A forty-something guy plodding through the suburbs of a little Canadian city.
The thing is, I’ve been doing it for ten years. Well, ten years give or take a month to be precise… but basically ten years.
While we were on vacation last week — or was it two weeks ago — we were sitting in a hotel room in Houston, waiting to get on a shuttle to board our cruise ship, and the New York Marathon was on television. I was somehow once again in the US of A, but this time far from the start line and far from in shape to be there. A year ago I had run that race, finished that beast, and done so standing up. This year… well, it’s been a year since I’ve aspired to anything of that magnitude.
Sure, in 2017 I ran a couple awesome relays, finished a half marathon (or was it two?) and plodded along with my sport. In the back of my mind, however, I was giving myself a bit of a year off. Not pushing. Not exceeding. Not trying to find a new level.
Everyone needs a year off. And I think I’ve finished mine.
So… how to get things cranked back up… becomes the next tough question.
One idea I’ve had (particularly since picking up a new GoPro in the last month) was by creating some Youtube videos and effectively just vlogging about it.
Ugggh.
Hold on. Wait just a second.
So in the past, I’ve frequently run with a video camera. This results in one of two outcomes. Either (a) I mount it to something and run past the lens in steady, serene staged clips of this-guy plodding through the scene, or (b) I run with it in my hand and I get vomit-inducing, very shaky first person clips of my run. I like both, but the first is time consuming to create and no one really wants to watch the second.
The new camera has built-in stabilization. This means I can run with it in my hand and while it’s not quite like watching a camera on rails, it’s not nearly so shaky as past videos. Have a look for yourself:
So the next question becomes… can I make these at the rate of one every couple of weeks? Will anyone watch them? And most importantly, will they inspire me to run more frequently and on more interesting routes? Can they help kick start my training back into something resembling a serious hobby?
One thing that I’m feeling like I never did enough of was post some of my video footage from my older cameras. I’m not claiming to be some epic videographer, but then that’s the point isn’t it? I’m just a guy with a camera that he lugs around in public and takes photos and videos. My footage is what most anyone who spends fifteen minutes poking at the basic camera settings could accomplish.
Plus, I often go wandering in some odd and interesting places and have given up being shy about recording the world around me.
So my resolution with the new GoPro, the Hero6 that I picked up just one week ago, is to share more of my footage. That is, not even sharing so much the highly produced and edited stuff… rather just posting more clips here and there of some of the better stuff.
Maybe a one minute reel of me walking around somewhere curious.
Or a few shorter clips strung together of a photo expedition.
Or the raw pieces of one of my running-with-a-camera adventures put end to end with some royalty-free music overlaid onto the clips.
It doesn’t count for much, but I know its the type of stuff that is useful when I buy a camera answering questions like: how will MY footage look because I’m NOT a highly paid stunt photographer with a team and a lighting rig and the option to only show you the best four seconds I captured after two straight hours of shooting. I’m just a guy who pulls his camera out for fifteen seconds here and there when the opportunity arises in real life. How will my video look?
