Having the right tools for the job

I like the idea of running as a hobby. It's free, minimal equipment required, can be done at any time and keeps you fit - what could be against it? Well mostly the fact it is even more boring than swimming. Any of those treadmill activities have always seemed, to me, to be the most senseless hobbies - how does anyone become motivated to do them?

Today on the tube I saw a fit young man proudly sporting a tracksuit with BRITISH SWIMMING TEAM emblazoned on the breast, and the UK Olympic symbols to denote a bona fide swimming star of the future. He was lugging up the stairs the most enormous kitbag that looked like it contained a dead wildebeest. For swimming? It was either a heck of a number of towels or swimming has become a whole lot more complicated than the 1970s, when I could fit trunks, goggles and a towel into a single Sainsbury's bag. Unless he had to bring his own pool to practise in.