Visiting my sister at the weekend gave us a rare chance to run together. Living long distances away from each other for the past six years has meant that running opportunities have virtually been limited to the annual Christmas visit to our parents' house. However despite this lack of joint runs and the fact we lead different lives, with varying exercise routines etc. we slotted into a long 19k run together with relative ease, finding a natural pace which suited us both.
When I say we are sisters, I really mean we are identical twins. Following our run together I was therefore interested to read a little into any reseatch or articles I could find on running twin siblings. The most famous twins that I am aware of are Kevin and Jonathon Borlee, Belgium 400m specialists. The brothers train together under the same coach (their father), but have not always had the same results. I found this article by the BBC interesting, in which it suggests that whilst the physical profile of twins will always be very similar, it is psychological traits which determine overall success:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/world_olympic_dreams/8804946.stm
Whilst reading into twins and running I also discovered that Mo Farah is a twin - something I was not actually aware of! In this piece in the Telegraph I found it interesting to read that in their youth the Farah brothers were on par in terms of running. However, Mo's move to England whilst his brother remained in Somalia, led them to leading very different lifestyles, which in turn has led to very different outcomes:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/athletics/9486001/Mo-Farahs-twin-We-could-have-been-famous-Olympians-together.html
My sister and I are both running the Great North Run in a couple of weeks, so it will be interesting to see how we fare in a race environment, and whether mental prowess will come out on top, or the differences in the lives we lead actually do influence our physical running - watch this space!
When I say we are sisters, I really mean we are identical twins. Following our run together I was therefore interested to read a little into any reseatch or articles I could find on running twin siblings. The most famous twins that I am aware of are Kevin and Jonathon Borlee, Belgium 400m specialists. The brothers train together under the same coach (their father), but have not always had the same results. I found this article by the BBC interesting, in which it suggests that whilst the physical profile of twins will always be very similar, it is psychological traits which determine overall success:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/world_olympic_dreams/8804946.stm
Whilst reading into twins and running I also discovered that Mo Farah is a twin - something I was not actually aware of! In this piece in the Telegraph I found it interesting to read that in their youth the Farah brothers were on par in terms of running. However, Mo's move to England whilst his brother remained in Somalia, led them to leading very different lifestyles, which in turn has led to very different outcomes:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/athletics/9486001/Mo-Farahs-twin-We-could-have-been-famous-Olympians-together.html
My sister and I are both running the Great North Run in a couple of weeks, so it will be interesting to see how we fare in a race environment, and whether mental prowess will come out on top, or the differences in the lives we lead actually do influence our physical running - watch this space!
