Do you run?

[CelticRambler]

Nope.

Quite happy to walk 30km over just about any terrain, but don't have the mentality to do it at a run.

[AmEireCan]

I’m the same as @celticrambler. I love going on long mountain hikes that could last an entire day but I don’t enjoy running. Not good for your joints anyway.

[Hairy-Joe]

Nope but I don't mind cycling for 3 or 4 hours across a mountain.....

[Diamonds of Frost]

I don't. I can walk for miles but running isn't for me.

[CelticRambler]

Looks like Mountain will be running solo while the gubu horde tramps along behind at a slower pace!

Thinking about the various "runners" amongst my circle of family and friends, their runs are all target driven: aiming for a personal best over a given distance, or trying to achieve a certain number of steps/calories, etc. They all have fitness monitors that are fired up before they go and downloaded when they get back. Crossing other runners on a path in the wild, you can (usually) see that "don't-stop-me-know" look in their eye and you know they're on the timer too!

Whenever I set out on a walk, the only reason I'd work out the time vs. distance calculation would be know where to stop for lunch, or to make sure I'd be back at base by whatever-o'clock in the afternoon/evening. Between the first and last steps, though, there'd be plenty of opportunity for stopping to chat, take photos, detour off the planned route, retrace one's steps for various reasons ...

[kadman]

I would cycle 20km rather than walk 5km its a lot kinder to the joints, as for running I,m just not built for that anymore.

[Hairy-Joe]

I must confess to being someone with a cycling GPS "computer" yoke (Wahoo Elemnt). I use it for navigating on routes I don't know. I sit down on Google Maps or Open Street Maps and try to find interesting routes. I then save them to the Wahoo and then follow them. The advantage is that if I go off the planned route (which is a distinct possibility) I can get back onto the planned route easy enough to finish out my ride.

I always track every cycle (even routes I do know) so that I can see what mileage is on each bike. Just curious for mileage, that's all......

[Del.Monte]

Never after women or buses, there'll be another along soon!

[Hairy-Joe]

Never after women or buses, there'll be another along soon!

But I'd probably run for free chocolate.

[isha]

I love the idea of running and have tried it at various times in my life, but it is just not for me.
I walk a good bit. I just don't like all the jiggling up and down and hard impact through the feet/knees/legs of actual running.

Peter O Toole (actor, still with us at almost 90) had a good (or bold) line - The only exercise I take is walking after the coffins of friends who took exercise.

Though I do still love the idea of it - maybe one day I will. I have the same feeling about playing the piano though.

[CelticRambler]

Yeah, I don't consider the "think of your joints" argument as a good reason for not running - our joints were built for running after (or away from) other creatures, after all. And walking or cycling can put just as much strain on tendons and ligaments if circumstances create the conditions (plenty of ankles are sprained on even the easiest of walks).

It doesn't bother me that some family members take themselves off for a run every morning when they're visiting, nor that they do the same circuit every day for five days in a row ... but when I park up somewhere for the weekend, I prefer to head off on a trail I've never checked out before, ideally to get to a point on a map that I've never visited before, or never at that time of year. I used to be apply the same principles to my cycling, but these days, it's too much hassle to cart the bike around, and it's a bit of a handicap when the path ahead continues vertically up a ladder.

Also, although most of my hikes are solitary affairs, I do enjoy the random encounters that walking allows with other walkers. There's just not the same incentive to chat to someone who's hurtling down a ravine on a bike, or trotting past on foot. (Side note: it's something of an unwritten Alpine walkers code that you very deliberately say a meaningful hello to every other hiker on the trail - it's a way of helping identify the last known location of people who haven't shown up at their expected rendezvous point that evening.)