Cambridge parkrun presented no problem today and I am now assuming my calf injury is fully healed. This is good news, and very timely too, because I’m running a half marathon at Wimpole Hall estate tomorrow. The weather is predicted good with plenty of sunshine and I now feel invincible again. In fact I might run the course then run it again to complete a full marathon. Or I might run it backwards. Who knows what I am capable of ! But putting on my hard hat of objectivity, I remind myself that I am under trained for this distance at the moment and I might re-injure my calf. Quick as a flash, I remove my hard hat and don my cloak of invincibility. I am all powerful and nothing can stop me completing the race in a record time. I decide to keep my cloak on and store my hard hat in the garage.

Lorna’s Achilles’ injury is proving to be more substantial than we first thought and she has now been advised to walk as little as possible for the next week. If the pain and discomfort improve we will know that extended minimal walking and rest is the way to go. Not to run is a big disappointment but at the moment even normal getting around can be painful. So Lorna didn’t volunteer today and I went off to parkrun alone. My arch rival Mike is running in the half marathon tomorrow and decided to keep his powder dry by not doing parkrun. He did support me as a vocal spectator, however, magnanimously clapping rather than hissing as I passed by. He’s beating me by about 2-3 minutes on 10K runs but hasn’t run 13 miles before. With my swirling cloak of invincibility, I’m sure I’ll be a winner.

I still have little understanding why Obama’s health care bill, and the issue of extending medical care to a larger section of those who have great difficulty accessing the help they need, creates such hostility and righteous anger in the Republican Party. Large swathes of America opinion seem to be so foccussed on vested interest or expressing a repugnance of paying extra taxes to support the initiative or fearing a slippery slope to socialism. I can only conclude that the Christian virtues espoused by many Republicans are entirely hypocritical (or perhaps ironic) because the impression I receive is that they are wholly lacking in common humanity, charity and empathy.