The Crimson Jogger

As the taper for the Fling has now begun, I fear I’m going to have to cast the net a little wider for “running tales”.  So apologies if this seems tenuous.

Those of you who commute to work along a regular route at a regular time will no doubt cross paths with other folk making their own commute.  Some folk you will see repeatedly and are themselves regulars.  Some of these regulars stand out, and indeed become “characters”.  As I commute with my kids, the spotting of these characters has turned into a bit of a game.

“Crazy Walking Lady”, “Photographic Negative Girl”, “Head-in-a-Bag Girl”, “Suspiciously Dark Hair Man”, and “The Crimson Jogger” are all actors on our stage.  Many of them we see daily, so they foster no real excitement – like a Z-list celebrity that the paparazzi don’t bother wasting a flashbulb on.  But the sighting of others is comparatively rare, and therefore an event to be cherished.  The Crimson Jogger falls into the latter category, and is undoubtedly my favourite.  An Anthony Hopkins or a Ben Kingsley, who makes you work a bit harder for it.

So much so that Jamie proposed a resolution that we amend his character name to “the lesser-spotted Crimson Jogger”.  But I vetoed that because it makes him sound like a songbird, rather than the upholder of truth and justice that he most assuredly is.

The Crimson Jogger is an older gentleman who is always clad in an “old school” red (obviously!) heavyweight cotton tracksuit – unbranded, and the sort of thing that would be worn by a 1950s Army PT instructor.  Which he might have been in a former life – that, or a back row rugby player.  If we do see him then it tends to be in the New Town – on Drumsheugh Gardens, Dean Bridge, Queensferry Road, or near the Modern Art Galleries.  Depending on how far into his run he is, the flush of his face can complement the shade of his attire.

But this morning we made a significant breakthrough.

The Crimson Jogger was observed emerging from his Secret Hideout.  Crimson Jogger unmasked!