Sport for fun and sport for - not

[oursin]

Though even conkers people take seriously apparently: 'King Conker’ cleared of cheating at World Conker Championships (Is nothing sacred?)

However, this sounds like it brings a certain anarchic spirit to the business: ‘Cheating is encouraged’: nut crackers at Peckham’s Conker Championships go for the fun

But apparently the TikTok generation post videos of gently unpeeling them???

The conkers danger is actually a Top Elf'n'Saftee Myff: 10 ridiculous Health and Safety myths debunked.

Am not sure why conkers should be having a moment just now, because they were dropping off the local trees several weeks ago, and are surely now past.

But at least the people playing conkers seem to be having fun: apparently - and counter to all those exhortations to do this thing for the good of your mental health - doing marathons has a downside: One in four endurance runners displays ‘worryingly high’ levels of anxiety and depression.

One wonders how far it's the obsessive dedication as much as any physiological factor that has an adverse effect.

Comments

[silveradept]

I would think that just like anyone else who takes up a hobby to run away from their problems, the marathoners would have the same kind of issues, plus all the ones that come with doing things competitively and not doing as well as you thought you were supposed to.

As for conkers, I think it proves how much silly things can be taken seriously, and how serious things can be made silly appropriately.

[rydra_wong]

But at least the people playing conkers seem to be having fun: apparently - and counter to all those exhortations to do this thing for the good of your mental health - doing marathons has a downside: One in four endurance runners displays ‘worryingly high’ levels of anxiety and depression.

The question is what the direction of causality is, though. Definitely for some people (whose brains produce "runner's high"), aerobic exercise has a brief mood-lifting effect. So it's very possible that some people who get Very Intensely into running do so because they're trying to self-medicate for pre-existing anxiety/depression.

[oursin]

'Wherever you go, there you are' - was this an apothegm of some 70s guru? it sounds like it.

[anna_wing]

Origin unknown but normally associated with Buckaroo Banzai.