Writing in English? Miles and not metric?

A girl from Czech Republic, Europe is writing her running blog in English and counting her distances in miles. Are you asking what the hell went wrong? Since my blog was added among the blog list at behej.com (bit smaller yet great Czech version of RunnersWorld.com), I decided finally to write this post I have been planning for some time. Let me give you some answers ...

I am very honored and grateful to be included among the blogs at behej.com even though my blog is in English and the target audience of course are mainly Czech speaking runners. I believe I owe it to the readers coming to my site through this source or to anyone who is tempted to ask to explain few things.

First, why do I write my blog in English? I am Czech and both my parents are, so Czech is my only native language. But I used to live abroad for longer or shorter periods and I have many friends from all over the world. For example a friend who motivated me to go for my first half marathon (Merci, Guillaume!!!) and who has come for the past two half marathons in Prague and so on. So in order to be able to stay in touch with my friends all around the world, English is the obvious choice. Apart from that, the English speaking running community has been always a great source of advice, know-how and wisdom for me. This is my tiny mini way to pay at least little bit back.

Obviously, my English is not perfect, so I hope you will excuse me for that. I am also very open to any corrections of the mistakes I certainly do. For the Czech audience, you can take reading my blog as your English practice :) And feel free to ask if you need any explanation, comment in Czech, I promise to reply in Czech. Thank you for the understanding on both sides.

Now the second thing that might seem strange here in continental Europe. Why do I use miles as the main unit for all my training, statistics etc.? There are two reasons. The first one is simply sentimental and me being conservative to what I am used to. I started running back in the summer 2009 when I was temporarily living in the New York City and since miles are the commonly used units, I started to use miles as well, because it was just easier this way when talking about running. I kept doing what I was used to, I have simply continued using the miles ever since.


The second reason is psychological for me. Since 1 mile equals approx. 1.6 km the same distance equals "less" miles than kilometers. When I need to go for a 16 km run, it's "just" 10 miles. I have all my measuring devices set in miles, so the watch beeps just 9 times before I am at the end of the run and also if I am listening to music, the Nike+ feedback is every mile. The distances seem to go by faster in miles than in kilometers, howgh. I do not know if it is understandable, but that is the way it is for me :) I'm one crazy hot pink runner!

Stay tuned, sign up for email updates or RSS feeds or leave a comment, tell me about your story or send me a link to your blog! And just keep running and listen to your body.