body image · running

run like a wombat!

Sam B
cuddle
(2008) Lousy photo of me but the wombat looks great! So warm and cuddly. These were orphans whose mums had been hit by cars so they raise them and release them into the wild. Once they turn into surly teenage wombats they stop wanting to cuddle and they get them ready for release.

I’ve long been a fan of wombats. The photo above is me cuddling a wombat while on sabbatical in Australia. They’re odd animals to be sure but the young ones are super snuggly.

But today on the sad occasion of the world’s oldest wombat’s passing, I learned a new fact about wombats: “Wombats can run 40 km/hr despite looking fat and slow.” That’s from the wonderfully written obituary for Hamlet.

I love the idea–as a heavy, stocky, muscular (pick your adjective) runner, that not all creatures who are fast look like they are fast. Sure we praise gazelles and jaguars, but look here’s the speedy wombat. I think the wombat might be my running role model. Go wombats go!

 

Published by Sam B

Philosopher, feminist, parent, and cyclist! Co-founder of Fit Is a Feminist Issue, co-author of Fit at Mid-Life: A Feminist Fitness Journey, published by Greystone Books.

One thought on “run like a wombat!”

  1. Love this! And it’s a good lesson– not everything that is fast looks fast. and vice versa. Same goes for strong, smart, etc… Love the wombat running, too. For me, I’m enamored of sea turtles– on land they’re awkward, and but water they are graceful and can go for up to thousands of miles.

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