Finish

Hi, my name is Paul, up until about one and a half years ago I was a member of Loopgroep03. I came upon Igor quite by chance one morning on the train to Den Haag, we got talking about old times, the group life, the universe and why I stopped running with the group. Was it injury, lack of motivation, time or was I unhappy. If I were honest I would have answered “All of the above”. But I was not and muttered something about “working in Rotterdam”. Being honest with myself and open with others especially when sharing personal things is not my forte.

However, I have now had time to reflect and reasons as to why I stopped running with the group were many fold. Health, my hamstrings were giving me trouble and still are, it was only a small irritation, but caused a lot of discomfort for days following a hard training. Saturday was written off to taxiing my children to their various sporting events. Working in Rotterdam made it difficult to make the training times during the week days. Tiredness and lack of personal motivation meant I was not going to make 100% effort to make those trainings. Not being able to give 100% is personally painful for me and I  feel that if you cannot commit yourself completely to something especially a club or group you should stop. In short I felt I was letting the group and myself down. I miss the ‘gezelschap’ of running with you all, I still run but not often enough. I want to return to the group, running as a pack pushes you a lot harder than going it alone. I miss chatting with other members the duinen and the chocolate cookies on a Saturday, a guilty treat after a hard training. I hope soon to join you again.