Lore Of Running
Faustina Trafton
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You'll also find a candid analysis of supplements and ergogenic effects and training aids. The book includes new interviews with 10 world-class runners who share their secrets to success and longevity in the sport. Features on legendary figures and events in running history provide fascinating insights.
Dr. Timothy Noakes is Discovery health professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town and director of the medical research council/UCT research unit for exercise science and sports medicine at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa in Newlands. Noakes received his MD from the University of Cape Town. He is a veteran of more than 70 marathons and ultramarathons. He is an editorial board member for many international sport science journals and a former president of the South African Sports Medicine Association. In 1999, he was elected as one of 22 founding members of the International Olympic Committee's Olympic Science Academy. Noakes is also a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. He and his wife, Marilyn Anne, reside in Cape Town, South Africa.
Dr. Timothy Noakes is Discovery health professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town and director of the medical research council/UCT research unit for exercise science and sports medicine at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa in Newlands. Noakes received his MD from the University of Cape Town. He is a veteran of more than 70 marathons and ultramarathons. He is an editorial board member for many international sport science journals and a former president of the South African Sports Medicine Association. In 1999, he was elected as one of 22 founding members of the International Olympic Committee's Olympic Science Academy. Noakes is also a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. He and his wife, Marilyn Anne, reside in Cape Town, South Africa.
While some find their motivation through a running streak, others prefer to steer clear of logging any more than a few days of consecutive runs, for reasons that relate less to perseverance and more to health.
I pinned my numbers on my sweatshirt and not my burgundy top. It was the final commitment to wearing that warm sweatshirt for the whole race. I was pleased; the sweatshirt had been a buddy in Syracuse for several hundred miles and would live on another day, rather than dying at the roadside on the way to Boston. We started warming up. Everyone was darting about in different directions, all in grey sweat suits, some with hoods up, some with nylon windbreakers over them, some bare-legged, and some with shorts over the pants, a method of wearing sweats I never could understand. We all looked alike, like ragtags.
Boston was always Mecca for runners. Now I, too, was one of the anointed pilgrims. After months of training with Arnie and dreaming about this, here we were, streaming alongside the village common and onto the downhill of Route 135 with hundreds of our most intimate companions, all unknown, but all of whom understood what this meant and had worked hard to get here. More than ever before at a running event, I felt at home.
A man with an overcoat and felt hat was then in the middle of the road shaking his finger at me; he said something to me as I passed and reached out for my hand, catching my glove instead and pulling it off. I did a kind of stutter step, we all had to jostle around him. I thought he was a nutty spectator, but when I passed I caught a glimpse of a blue and gold BAA ribbon on his lapel. Where had he come from?
Been thinking which race will fit each profession best when it comes to lore and aesthetics.For some time I thought Sylvari are the ultimate rangers because of their plant appearance and supposed nature connection. That is, until I rolled a Sylvari ranger and saw the basic skills...They all come with visual effects based on wild animals - bears, birds and so on which makes me feel like the player is really pushed to play as a Norn to match the theme of the class.
"Nature" is a theme which involves more than plant life or animals, yet the ranger seems more focused on the latter. Ranger core fits Norn better, Soulbeast does as well and only Druid spec can arguably be closer to Sylvari.
Norn/Sylvari are both equally lore friendly when it comes to rangers in my personal opinion. We see plenty of Sylvari around the world followed by their staple sylvan hounds, which can imply their close connection to animals/plant life not unlike the Norn. Though this is of course depends on your own personal perspective when it comes to what the ranger is, since like warriors, rangers are rather open to interpretation as to what they're lore wise.
Anyway, in my opinion I think Sylvari/Norn are equally the most lore friendly race when it comes to rangers if you really wanted to look at it that deeply. I guess following those two would be Humans/Charr middling the ground as lore friendly rangers, and Asura coming dead last when it comes to rangers and lore friendliness.
I'd say that the asura are very lore-friendly when it comes to the class (I may be biased, since my ranger is one). The Druid traitline and NPC druids are products of the Maguuma Jungle, and the asura are a dominant playable race in that region. The setting literature that covers how the asura view the other playable races states that "Although the Asura have grown to appreciate the skills and talents of other races, often using them in experiments or on dangerous missions, they still hold fast to their organized society... The Asura believe they are destined to rule the larger, less intelligent races of the world. They see humans, especially, as quite good for heavy lifting, and in general terms, view other races as merely pawns to be manipulated in Asuran schemes." If that is how they view the non-genius humanoid races, it's not illogical for an asura to also view an animal companion as having similar utility. There's unfinished in-house fanfic of an asuran ranger, albeit a less egotistical one than most, that revolves heavily around the relationship between pet and master. A prominent NPC in one of the first Asuran story missions also has a pet; in that case both are used for comic effect. And perhaps most helpfully of all when coming up with the backstory for your PC, there are multiple examples in the game's backstory of asuran settlements being destroyed by sudden cataclysms (e.g. the pre-surface cities that were destroyed by the imaginatively-named Destroyers; the destruction of Rata Novus by the Chak; whatever happened in the events covered by the Uncategorized fractal, if those events qualify as real; the asura who were "expelled or killed" by Palawa "I'm an overused meme" Joko from the desert during the events of the PoF backstory; and probably other examples as well). A survivor of any of these events, forced to survive in wilderness conditions with limited equipment but the instinctive know-how to tame lesser intellects and craft basic technologies? They would have the perfect backstory to take up the ranger class!
I still don't think Asuran would be lore friendly because they're all capable of making or purchasing their own golem. Which would be more efficient than spending similar hours on domesticating a pet ally just to have it die from old age or combat.
A single golem could be designed to do what multiple pets can do. So imo a genius race wouldnt waste their time on an inefficient pet. Also, bows are super primitive and Asuran love being the pinalce of technology.
Charr are probably the second least friend. Again, they invented firearms, it would be out if the norm for a charr to use a bow. Once rangers can use rifles, they'll be tied with sylvari. Imo, a charr that uses a bow would have to either be older than firearms, not wanting to relearn marksmanship on a rifle. Or they grew up far away from charr civilization.
Imo, sylvari are third. Because having a sylvari dog doesn't make you in-touch with other animals. Sylvan hounds are born behaving for sylvari, takes no effort to domesticate them. Nightmare sylvari have to actually domesticatee them to be nightmare hounds. Most pale reavers use rifles. The first born sylvari are around 20 years old. Most archers have been practicing archery their entire lives. A human/charr/norn archer over 30 years old would have an entire life of archery practice leading up to the first events at the tutorial. A sylvari is literally born when you create it. And a master at archery a level 80, probably a month or two ingame days.