Janathon

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Aliveandrunning Janathon January 3

Day 3. I donned my black running tights again and ventured into the gloom. My new haircut today allowed me to glide along with superb aerodynamic efficiency. I plumped for an uncontroversial short  style after the barber declined to work his magic and  transform my barnet ( cockney rhyming slang – Barnet fair = hair) so it was indistinguishable from Rod Stewart’ coiffure circa 1972. It was dark and drizzly and strangely, mildly exhilarating. I duplicated my 2 mile run of yesterday since I left it late to hit the road and needed to get back to cook the family meal. I soon got into a running groove and an owl and nightjar flew alongside me, commenting on and advising me about, my running gait. “We see lots of nocturnal joggers, ” he twitt-a-wooed,”and I can confirm you’ve got very good running form. Keep up the training and you’ve got a parkrun win in the bag.” “Yes,”sang the nightjar,”but you will need trail shoes in muddy conditions. We heard about your experience at Huntingdon parkrun on New Years Day. You nearly came to a standstill.” I didn’t need reminding,thank you!

I’m marshaling at Cambridge parkrun tomorrow morning and the forecast is heavy rain. I may go for a longer run in the afternoon with an informal running group. The weather is expected to improve.

I considered applying for the Great North Run today. I completed the online form but baulked at the entry fee of £50. Decided against it. I would love to do it but I would have to stop over for a day or two because of the distance to travel. Taking part in a really big event is exciting but not necessary for a runner. What we need to do is just run…anywhere.

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Aliveandrunning Janathon January 2

Day 2. I’m still recovering from yesterday’s mud festival at the Hinchingbrooke 5K. They should have billed it as a swamp challenge. In retrospect, I think Indiana Jones had less dangerous near misses even where he’s actually trapped in a swamp up to his neck. My body is unscathed but my mind is in bits. It didn’t help that my nice Ron Hill tracksters were still drying and I was compelled to wear running tights in broad daylight. I looked like Max Wall!

max wall image

Whereas, I normally look like this

knit4

No matter, I pulled myself together and went off for a 2 mile run just to keep things ticking over. The weather was sunny and mild today and if one was inclined, one could fantasise that Spring was around the corner. This one started to fantasise. I saw daffodils poking through everywhere and I’m sure I glimpsed lambs gambling in the fields.

Why run? You feel physically better – more alive, alert and fitter. Your mood improves, you feel more positive and you meet a whole new society of good people. You reduce the risk of developing a raft of diseases and disorders, you focus more sensibly on the food you eat. You feel younger (this is age related : you don’t feel 14 when you are actually 22) and it can be exciting and result in a sense of well being. Why wouldn’t you?

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Aliveandrunning Janathon January 1 2013

First day of Janathon! We went to Huntingdon parkrun (for 9 am )where the 5K race is held in Hinchingbrooke Country Park. This was the first of two special New Years Day parkruns, the second taking place in Peterborough at 10.30 .am. A lot of our chums went to both but we just did the one. It was a lovely course – undulating, grass land and woodland paths – and a complete mud bath. I’ve never run along such long tracts of churned up mud before. I haven’t got trail shoes and I seem to have trouble with balance in these conditions. I did a very slow time. Still it was fun and Lorna took some good pictures. The forecast was rain today but it held off until the finish of the race. The temperature was mild and unlike yesterday when I ran the Ely New Years Eve  10K at Little Downham, I didn’t notice the wind.

Here’s me at Huntington today on relatively firm but gluey ground. I pulled even weirder faces in the thicker mud in the woods plus the start of the race. Both photos by Paul Homewood.

1525098_10201248953090867_1574392435_n (1)          steve at Hinchingbrooke, Huntingdon 5K, NYD

 

On slightly firmer ground

Lorna's pic of me at Huntingdon, NYD

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Aliveandrunning December 28

200th parkrun at Cambridge today and I have run 148 of them plus another 10 at Wimpole Estate. The weather was fine – sunny and not too cold – but muddy in many places. My arch rival, Mike, was marshaling which left me competing with No. 2 arch rival Diane. As usual I could hardly contain myself. I felt like a rocket in a silo waiting for the FIRE button to be pressed, I was a torpedo restless in its tube. Someone said go and I took off like a particle whizzing around the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Knocking people aside without pity, I broke free from the pack and took on the mantle of front runner only to have my dream shattered. The race had not started yet. I was a highly strung thoroughbred and when a couple having a conversation near me included the word GO I responded instinctively. Boy, was there a copious amount of egg on my face ! Ashen visaged, I apologised to my fellow runners whom I had pushed into a ditch or into muddy puddles and retook my position farther back as a penance. It didn’t go very well. No. 2 arch rival Diane overtook me around half way and I had no gas left in the tank to catch her up. I was startled when a very small child went past me. I’m sure I’ve seen larger tadpoles ! As is the nature of small, young fast children, they suddenly speed up then dramatically slow up, simultaneously weaving from side to side and repeating this strategy. It’s hilarious if you are limited  to running responsibly as a grown up (unless you succeed in getting tripped up). After cutting me up several times, he took off and I was history. He probably complained to the run director that too many old people are cramping his style. Lovely run despite coming 135th out of a field of 336.

Tomorrow I hope to do a 45-60 minute run and on New Years Eve I’ve got a 10 K. Possibly on New Years Day I might be doing one or two differently convened parkruns. As I write this it does seem a tad excessive (for me). It will definitely blow out the tubes and hopefully get me running longer and more frequently again.

Cambridge parkrun is held in Milton Country Park to the north of the city. The course is mainly grass and trail with some narrow paths. I’m sure the trees are closing in at various points. Quite a lot of them look surly and resentful  as we pass by. I’m convinced they’re not happy with the  resultant pounding of over 300 pairs of feet every week. I’ll try to speak to the wood nymphs and reach an accommodation. I saw  Spielberg’s Poltergeist and I don’t want to be plucked off the run path by a malevolent maple.

Alan Turing has been given a posthumous pardon for his conviction following homosexual activity. He committed suicide after being required to undergo  “chemical castration”- experimental hormone therapy to dampen down homosexual urges. The type of work he had been allowed to undertake subsequently was limited because of the supposed risk to security linked to his sexual orientation. There’s plenty of criticism to the pardon under a Royal Prerogative of Mercy which notes he was convicted under due process of the current laws in 1952. Some people argue it’s unfair on the thousands of ordinary, consenting gay men who were convicted under the same laws whose convictions still hold. My view is that all men (and women, if any) who were sentenced under these vicious “moral” laws should be pardoned. Moral panics, and particularly those of a sexual nature, may last for decades or centuries or even become embedded into the culture. In kinder and more enlightened times, I feel it is very important to revisit those nasty, ignorant and bigoted laws and expose their cruelty rather than merely state they were a product of their times. Alan Turing , along with many others at Bletchley Park, shortened the war and saved thousands of lives. The “laws” he transgressed had no right to be laws of the land and contained no justice, only sexual fear and prejudice.

New Year resolutions :

1. Research science fiction literature over last 100 years with view to developing a cult/religion.

2.Consider options to monetise said cult/religion.

3. Complete Janathon (run and blog daily) for month of January.

4. Keep an eye on Pope Francis!