Am I Being Unfair?

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Janathon Day 21 It’s all about the image, man

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In the spring or summer I hope to do a bit of trail or fell running somewhere in the UK. Never done it before. I’ve only taken in occasional steep hills or undulating countryside. We’ll probably try to identify a race that’s manageable for an inexperienced fell runner rather than opting to run up and down something that should be tackled with ropes, crampons and ice axes. Nor do I want to be in a race with ultra tough looking fell men that eat ice when they need a drink and run up as fast as they run down. There must be something suitable for a soft Southerner (living in the East).

I’m currently doing a screen printing course for complete beginners, during the daytime, in a local college. It’s in a large art room/studio full of much used art equipment, paint stained sinks, racks, screen print benches of varying sizes and everything to support multi media. Second session tomorrow. It’s a bit like being back at school but more relaxed and with a benign teacher.

Another night time run. Didn’t really feel like it initially. After 5 minutes I came alive and felt much more alert and energetic. That’s the thing with running – it wakes you up!

Parkrun on the weekend. We’ll do Wimpole Hall Estate. It’ll be muddy and slow but we’ll be with friends, have a nice mug of coffee post run and the bookshop will beckon. Heaven.

 

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Janathon Day 19 Something like winter

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Hard frost this morning, around -5C or -6C. Brrrrrrrrrr!

 

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No, this isn’t Siberia or the frozen Alaskan wastes, it’s Worts Meadow in rural Cambridgeshire but there are undeniable similarities. All three locations are pretty chilly and require the correct standard of clothing and protection to survive the hazardous environment. Luckily I made it home unscathed, accompanied by Rupert the dalmatian (he didn’t fare so well. The intense cold caused a couple of his spots to fall off).

I had previously decided not to run with the club tonight (a planned fartlek around Cambridge) and instead do a long run by the river. The temperature was one or two degrees above zero and I wore my heaviest cycling jacket to keep the cold at bay. In the end I ran a bit further than I anticipated and did just over 10 miles. I came across surprising number of runners of all ages( and the obligatory walkers cluttering up the tow path).

Janathon total so far around 69 miles (running).

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Janathon Day 18 Everyone’s gawping at everyone else

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I took this picture of Trinity College’s Jerwood Library, on the bank of the Cam, yesterday. The light was poor, I was cold and it was taken with the wrong lens. To make matters worse, I was just able to lip read one of the gilded youths inside the warm library. He turned towards another chap, who was probably clutching a teddy bear, and said “Look at that twit, standing in the cold, trying to take photo of us with his silly telephoto lens.”

Another cold day, today. The temperature didn’t go much above zero centigrade and tomorrow morning it will be more like -3 or -4c. I went for an afternoon run, starting in an adjacent village and running along the Cam in the opposite direction to usual, that is towards Ely rather than Cambridge, There’s no clay cycle path going this way and it proved to be very muddy. I did around 3 miles which felt enough.

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Janathon Day 16 Drama on the start line

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Picture by John Wilderspin

Cambridge parkrun and they’re off! Well at least two of them are. The man in the orange with folded arms is clearly sulking and thinking about it.

Chris in the blue top is showing serious intent and goes on to win it (I mean he completes it first, it’s not a race of course). Nice pose by Paul who sets them off with his horn (except the sulky guy who’s not playing ball).

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Picture by John Wilderspin

Here I am, lost in my own world, slightly open mouthed and fully attired for freezing weather. Compare and contrast with the near naked elite on the start line. The temperature is around minus 1c which is cold enough to wear  my warmest jacket. Trail shoes were essential. There was ice, broken ice, mud, frozen mud and water lurking everywhere so one had to concentrate or one could find oneself coming a cropper.

Post run we had coffee with our good friends and very enjoyable it was, too. Tea was also taken.

Despite the cold and frosty weather, the sun held most of the day and we went into Cambridge in the afternoon. How lucky are we to live close to such a beautiful city which is really no bigger than a medium sized town.

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Here is the still spooky Trinity Lane.

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And here is the last of the Saturday sun shining on the righteous.

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One last pic. Cambridge University Press is currently having a book sale. All softback/paperbacks £3 and hardbacks £7. CUP academic books are notoriously expensive. It’s a big sale and goes on for three weeks with books being added daily. It’s beyond excitement. I’ll be back!

 

 

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Janathon Day 15 I am menaced by cows!

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Look how I am being given the evil eye by this crazy bovine, backed up by his equally aggressive mates. As you can see, I’m only protected by a thin ring of steel with a gate in the middle. So it’s a stand off. It lasted almost three hours until a truce was agreed and they allowed me to pass through the gate and return home. Actually, that’s not strictly true. This picture was taken in October and the cows are expecting to be thrown apples from the apple tree out of shot. Of course if they are denied apples, theoretically a stand off could occur and the long wait to get home might become a reality. You can now appreciate the risks and tricky situations that can arise if you live in the countryside. This is just one (theoretical) example.

No apples lying around now. The cows are gone and there was a hard frost this morning. But the sun was shining in a cloudless sky and it was perfect for running. Tomorrow it’s parkrun at Cambridge and the weather should be similar. Last week BBC East came along and their report was broadcast early in the week. It’s likely that more people will be encouraged to come along and last week was a record at 504. Mud, ice and congestion.

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Janathon Day 13 Rupert is discombobulated!

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Rupert feels anxious as the strange crocodile type creature passes across the sky. I’m worried that it might eat my polytunnel. Possibly time to move back to the city, any city. It’ll be safer.

The fence I’m building, just in front of the polytunnel, is responsible for my temporary back ache. I’m having to cut a lot of wire and fix it to the bottom of the visible wire netting so about 20-25 cms  is lying horizonal but buried 12 cms. Rabbits come up to the fence and start to burrow and then meet the buried netting. They might move along and dig again with the same result but crucially they don’t move back to beyond the extent of the buried wire and dig under it. Of course they might be high IQ Cambridge rabbits in which case I will be very displeased.

BBC Radio 4 Inside Health looked at exercise and osteoarthritis and building muscle strength. The scary Scots Dr Margaret McCartney came over all gooey waxing lyrical about parkrun. There was a discussion about optimum levels of exercise and building up your level of fitness. Well worth catching on podcast.  I listened to it on a little windup radio as I worked on the fence and sometimes didn’t hear bits. I was also distracted by a line of rabbits some way off watching me and laughing!

I went running in the dark again. I’m getting to like it. I feel more tired at the end of the day but after a few minutes the tiredness recedes and my energy returns. I’ll consider going for longer runs at night locally and perhaps in Cambridge city centre.

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Janathon Day 12 The Drone Age

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At last, a drone magazine in Tesco and it’s called DRONE magazine for simplicity. Too expensive for me to buy at £6 (I bought a small mountain of Brussels sprouts instead), it’s sure to kick start an avalanche of drone purchases.They’ll soon be as common place as wild birds only a lot more dangerous. I was in a hurry and flipped through it for a few seconds only. Unsurprisingly it featured many pictures of drones and also young men operating them, looking at them and standing around, probably discussing them. Possibly I got the wrong impression. I’ll do some more research.

Cold, dry and sunny this morning. I took the opportunity to continue building a rabbit proof fence for ninety minutes and then went for a run in the afternoon, just ahead of the rain. I did 8.5 k (to the edge of the river Cam and back) which was enough today. The fence construction is giving me a little backache so I’m doing hip flexor stretches which is helping. Note to self : do more stretching.

 

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Janathon Day 11 Thanks David

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Archbishop Justin Welby, commenting  on David Bowie’s death which was announced this morning, remembered “sitting listening to his songs endlessly in the 1970’s particularly and always really relishing what he was , what he did, the impact he had.” That won’t be music to the ears of certain delegates to the Anglican Communion in Canterbury today. Bowie regarded himself as bisexual.

I couldn’t lay my hands on Ziggy Stardust but I did find Hunky Dory which I prefer. Looking through my old vinyl it was sad to come across past heroes, now gone – Kevin Ayers, Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Sandy Denny, Janice Joplin, Rory Gallagher,Lou Reed, John Lennon, George Harrison, Nico. All part of growing up and the excitement of music.

A cold day in Cambridge, some sun but mainly dull and overcast. I went for a late run around 8.30 pm. Only my head light brightened it up.

 

 

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Janathon Day 9 We’re gonna be famous for 15 seconds!

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A very enjoyable Cambridge parkrun this morning. We had a record 504 runners and BBC Look East came along and filmed the whole proceedings. This picture shows our mate Kerry (who ran his 100th today) being interviewed by Jonathan Park. Kerry’s standing by a supply of cakes and a photo montage of Kerry centred pictures. Just out of shot is a couple of hundred drooling runners being held back by volunteers and gagging to devour the confectionery.

The run was very muddy, as anticipated, but the weather held. No rain and surprisingly mild. The camera man and interviewer Jonathan (who also ran) were very friendly and to blended in comfortably with everyone. They appeared to take possibly ninety minutes of film which might be edited down to a few minute or less. We’ll know on Monday evening when it’s scheduled to air. Hopefully it won’t feature me running with my mouth open and looking as if I’m about to collapse (my default appearance).

We tend to mark 50th, 100th and 250th runs as well as significant parkrun dates, and birthdays, with cakes at Cambridge. We also tend to take a lot of photos. Are we narcissistic? Obviously! Do the majority of other parkruns do this? Hopefully!

After the run we queued in the cafe and then enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee to further reward ourselves in good company. Next week, we’re off to Wimpole parkrun (cancelled today because of water logging)to celebrate their 3rd anniversary. For more of the same.

Perusing my wood pulp hard copy edition of that middle class, bleeding heart liberal, wooly, comfortable, arm chair lefty Guardian newspaper, I came across  an article :

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/08/church-of-england-fears-talks-on-gay-rights-could-end-global-anglican-communion

It discusses the high degree of likelihood of continuing fundamental disagreement in the world wide Anglican communion over gay rights and same sex marriage. As a humanist, I can only continue to marvel at the intrinsic lack of humanity, wilful ignorance and vicious, self serving prejudice in an organisation whose mission statement has something to say about love, tolerance, inclusion and diversity. And there you have it! It doesn’t say that sexuality is on a spectrum, varies within that spectrum for many of us and is often a biological imperative. So centuries old prejudices and sexual fears and anxieties are maintained and justified supernaturally. The church, with the clear conscience of the self righteous, can condemn and preside over the persecution of anyone outside of their definition of God approved sexuality. I think it would be more useful to return to the old, less cruel practice of estimating the number of angels who could stand on the head of a pin!

Sermon over.

I think these summit delegates would benefit from going for a 5k run before they begin to pontificate.

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Janathon Day 7 More gloomy light

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Heavy rain this morning and squally winds this afternoon.The quality of the light was poor all day After dark, the wind and rain eased off and I took the opportunity to use my new Petzl head torch. It’s a leap of faith if you can’t see exactly where you are placing your feet at night but the head torch provides sufficient strong light to illuminate a wide angle of the path. That means you can run more confidently. I don’t worry about running on a poorly lit pavement but a good torch makes for a more relaxing outing. Distance about 3.4 miles. Saw one other runner with a head light.

I subscribe to Heart Matters, the British Heart Foundation magazine which is free. https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-matters-magazine. It’s very informative, easy to read, discusses all aspects of heart disease and treatment and is full of positive and inspiring stories. This month it features explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes who had a heart attack in 2003 and had to be resuscitated from several cardiac arrests. Following bypass surgery, three months later he ran seven marathons in seven days on all seven continents. In 2005, he climbed Everest and got within 300 metres of the summit before chest pains stopped him going to the top. According to his surgeon, Professor Angelini, who raised no objection to these endeavours, “his heart has recovered ; there was no damage.” Professor Angelini did advise him his heart rate should not rise much above 130 beats per minute.

Fiennes went on to successfully climb Everest on his third attempt in 2008. He is now aged 71. Last year he completed the Marathon De Sables, an extremely demanding  251k  race across the Sahara desert.

The article seems to be a puff for super hero Fiennes whose cardiac arrests, bypass surgery and heart disease appear not to have had any impact on his ability to undergo extremes of physical endurance. No mention of medication although NICE guidelines seem to put everyone on Ramipril, bisoprolol, aspirin and statins following a heart attack. Ranulph, why are you different? Is it because you are a knight of the realm and strong blue blood courses through your veins? I’ll be contacting Heart Matters and HRM Queen Elizabeth over this.