The motion of the body through space
I recently read this new book by Lionel Shriver who you might remember for “We need to talk about, Kevin”, one of my best reads in a long time. And it set me thinking about the “why?” of exercise. In the book the wife character is now 60 and has exercised her whole life, it’s been her thing! Solo, long before it became fashionable, she did it all and strong. Now her knees are troubling her, and she is in denial about the op she is facing. Her husband has never broken a sweat, but suddenly finds himself retrenched…and decides to run a marathon! He is full of bluster about his new hobby and she is resentful, making for acerbic marital drama. To cut a long story short, he completes the marathon, coming stone last and nearly dies…and just as his wife thinks that their lives and relationship can go back to normal, he announces that he wants to do an Iron Man! [...]