Uncategorized

by

It’s me..me..me!

12308051_10153938339066159_6960447169838378140_o

I’m half way through an adult education course. It’s called Learn to Run with Your Mouth Shut for Beginners. Cambridge parkrun was my homework for this week. I reckon C minus!

Cold and wet last Saturday but the sun did did emerge. No-one I knew did a fast time. The gloopy mud prevented a nice springy step and I also felt constrained by the extra clothing. If I don’t over compensate with various layers, I get disproportionately cold around 2-3c and below. There were plenty of people running in shorts and singlet or short sleeved top, however and I remember more than several crazy people similarly under dressed  a couple of years ago when temperatures were down to minus 10 and 11.

I had an ultra sound on my thigh this week, two months after my fall at the Wimpole half marathon. I picked up an injury to my vastus intermedius which has resulted in some degree of calcification. Not sure of the possible consequences. I presume it might cause my quads to work less efficiently although be he calcification may resolve by itself. I’m now referred to the orthopaedic clinic for an opinion. Happily, I’m running okay except for a drop in fitness over the last two months and a five pound weight gain. That’s no problem because our digital scales give a different reading each time so with a bit of patience it eventually comes up with an acceptable weight.

I went running with the club a couple of nights ago after an absence of 9-10 weeks. We did a fartlek around Cambridge occasionally weaving in out between those funny people who choose to walk. I found it harder work than usual and I was lucky they didn’t expel me for bringing the the club into disrepute.

I returned home in time for the parliamentary vote on bombing Isis/Daesh in Syria. I find it impossible to believe anything the Tories have to say on a majority of issues and particularly military intervention and terrorism. American and British foreign policy has been disastrous for the Middle East and I think contributing to the bombing campaign is wrong. We are getting involved for political advantage, long term economic gain and probably to give our military an opportunity to test out their hardware and IT systems. The male drive to act with hostility and aggression is transparent even when it’s dressed up with glib justifications citing the need to combat evil and protect our hard working citizens.

by

My 250th parkrun completed at Cambridge on Saturday

IMG_20151114_110846632_HDR

Here I am, with my family and family friend Jemma, posing with my 250 balloons after everyone has left the cafe. We all ran, the rain held off and we had plenty of cake to share with friends. It was also Dan’s 50th so it was a double celebration. I’m still returning from injury and continuing to regain my running fitness. My time was only about a minute over what I would be happy with so I was satisfied. 5k is a do-able distance but I’m not up to 10k or more at the moment.

It’s really gratifying that all my family are doing parkrun either on a regular basis or when they can. It’s such an inclusive and positive movement. People who refuse to participate should be subject to the full force of the law. Three parkrun refusals and you get a custodial sentence. Possibly this is going too far.

Dan came up with some interesting stats. There are 1,286,246 parkrunners in the world (824,624 in the UK) and I am the 366th most experienced. It puts me in the top 0.03%. Unsurprisingly, I rather like these stats They have the ring of truth!

I enjoy listening to Radio 4’s The Bottom Line with Evan Davis. He discusses business issues with leading figures involved in specific areas ranging from branding, the arts, and start ups to finance, fashion and banking. It’s a direct and no-nonsense approach and often fascinating. This week I listened to a discussion on sponsorship which was, admittedly, less interesting than I anticipated. I did learn however that Castrol withdrew their sponsorship of the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin because they didn’t allow an LGBT contingent to march.

I’m currently compiling my wishlist of books for Christmas. Eight so far, two fiction, six non fiction. Keep felling those trees!

 

by

I’m a runner again!

IMG_20151031_141004582

Rupert posing among the golden autumn leaves. He’s not a dog given to deep thought but he does like to look as if he is grappling with weighty issues. When we returned home he confided that dog biscuits were uppermost in his mind at this point. Aren’t appearances deceptive?

Today marked my return from the gloomy misery of the Underworld, where the injured are forced to remain still, to the fair Elysian Fields of running. Oh happy days! I last ran almost five weeks ago, apart from a a two mile test run two days ago but today I came back to Cambridge parkrun. I’m not fully recovered and I’ve lost some fitness. I also took it easier than I intended because new twinges appeared to be emerging as I warmed up. However, the run went well. My good friend Becky did a great job pacing  me and a few running buddies complained as I cruised past them because they thought I was still injured. I had the new experience of being lapped by the winner which is a little deflating but he is such as nice chappy, I didn’t mind. I was thankful that my much faster running pals deigned to chat to me after the race despite my reduced status as a running god. My daughter Isobelle and her boyfriend Joe also ran at Cambridge today which was a real bonus. We all had coffee and hot chocolate in the cafe and very enjoyable it was too!

Next Saturday will be my 250th parkrun and hopefully my fitness will continue to improve. I started doing parkrun in Cambridge at their 6th run, following my heart attack in 2009. My time time today at 27 minutes 32 seconds was slower than my first run at Cambridge. It’ll get better!

 

 

by

Everyone is running except me! It’s criminal!!!!!!!

12186798_1060275160673842_993717652538751333_o

Good witch and tailrunner Diane tries to give me the evil eye as she accompanies this 80-84 category parkrunner at Wimpole Estate yesterday. I was marshaling by a long straight stretch adjacent to the lake and combined this sacred duty with taking a couple of hundred photos. That’s so like me. Just selflessly working on behalf of others without a thought for my own needs or comfort. Well, all that’s gonna change when I recover from my already-one-month old injury. It’ll be about me me me from then on. Still unsure when “my time” commences. Having fallen heavily on rubble and then run 12 miles on a quadriceps injury, it’s slowly getting better but it really is at a snail’s pace.I haven’t attempted to run over the last month because bending my left knee has been painful and movement is limited.

Anyway, I have a cunning plan! I start running prematurely and to my intense surprise and shock, re-injure myself. Obviously I wouldn’t be that stupid, would I? Unfortunately, it’s a great temptation. It’s sooooo frustrating watching Lorna and my running chums take part in races that are currently forbidden to me due to a ridiculous injury. I blame the farmer for laying down rubble to give traction to his heavy farm machinery during muddy weather, gravity for pulling my foot down causing me to stumble headlong, my running shoes for not thinking out of the box and warning me of impending danger and the weak megaphone which caused me not to hear the race director’s specific mention of the section of dangerous terrain (I was warming up at this point). In  a nutshell, my accident wasn’t my fault and I had to de-friend someone who suggested I don’t pick my feet up sufficiently. Condensed version of the above : I don’t like being unable to run.

DSC_0390

Lorna powers ahead to finish our local Bonfire Burn 10k while I languish like a beached jellyfish on the sidelines.

DSC_0433

These are runners. They have run 10k. How lucky are they?

12189388_1060266134008078_2795031234993613871_o                                                                    12185163_1060266170674741_5840595523414540355_o

This is Diane, hardworking race director at Wimpole Estate parkrun addressing the throng and again, with a young parkrunner.

IMG_20151101_205242483

Small compensation in the Wimpole pre-loved -but- now -wickedly -discarded -and -crying -out- for -an appreciative -home book shop.

I rest my case. Good night!

by

Cambridge Town and Gown 10k

DSC_0720

Fourth Cambridge Town and Gown 10k. They are off and immediately have to contend with a kamikaze photographer. Great running weather, sunshine throughout and lots of friends taking part. Unfortunately, I only had a bit part as a snapper due to the injury I picked up after I fell heavily during a half marathon three weeks ago. Still, they also serve who only stand and wait (Milton, On His Blindness, innit!)

DSC_0705

Lorna and some  of my running pals displaying their strange fascination with the the colour orange.

DSC_0707

Suddenly the atmosphere dramatically changes and Lorna gives me the evil eye. What have I said or done? It’s not credible that I may have been indiscreet or committed a faux pas. Nevertheless, I am turned to stone!

They all had a good race. I got repetitive strain injury in my camera button finger and limped around, ceaselessly attending to the needs of others. Roll on my recovery.

 

by

Still injured and no running on the horizon. It’s an Existential crisis. Help!

IMG_20150926_122155968.

This is the best front page I have seen on a running magazine. It’s the current November 2015 issue. I suspect that most of the front page females (and the occasional male) runners are models, at least in the most popular mags and are hardly representative of the mass of people running. This picture shows an undeniably overweight young woman, enjoying herself and showing good running form. She’s overweight but looks fit. It’s a cliche but I’ll use it. She’s inspirational and this image will give positive encouragement to legion other potential runners.

It’s two weeks since I fell at the Wimpole half marathon and injured my quadriceps. Recovery remains slow. I can still only go up stairs one at a time and I’ve only started to drive locally a few days ago. I did walk Cambridge parkrun last weekend (in 48 minutes) but in hindsight, it was a mistake and set me back several days. In hindsight, it was a mistake to continue to run 12 miles after I fell and also a mistake not to be doubly careful running over large rubble stones which really should have not been there in the first place. I can hear women all over the world mutter “typical male decision making”.

I marshaled at Cambridge parkrun today. Very enjoyable. I spoke to Mary Holmes (75-79) who is still getting sub 30 minutes and asked after Peter Chaplin (80-84) who used to run at Cambridge but is no longer coming. That’s a pity. He’s still physically able to take part, I think. These two people are excellent role models and demonstrate that age need not be an insurmountable obstacle to running and physical exercise.

IMG_20151017_191303973

I came across a few Ladybird books in the loft recently.The Old Woman and her Pig and The Magic Porridge Pot are beautifully surreal stories and finely illustrated, much superior to the Disney-fied later editions. They were cheap, hardback, had pictures every other page and could be easily read in one sitting. Parents, seek these out on Ebay! But beware of the The Record Breakers (1970) which shows various sporting records. There are 19 text pages and 19 facing illustrations of superlative achievements by men. There is one page and picture of a female long jumper whose Elfin appearance makes her look like a young boy. So, no female role models in this Ladybird reading scheme. If you must own this edition, keep it under lock and key and show it to no-one, particularly children.

by

I REMAIN SUBSTANTIALLY CLOBBERED. IT’S NOT MY FAULT. I BLAME THE EVIL TORY GOVERNMENT.

IMG-20151010-WA0004

Six days ago, I came a cropper during the Hoohaah Wimpole half marathon falling heavily on rubble. My left thigh took most of the impact. I picked myself up, dusted myself off and started all over again (thanks, Nat King Cole). I fell at just over  a mile in and continued running for the next 12 miles. By the evening I was hardly weight bearing on my left leg leg and couldn’t bent it at the knee.

Now it’s six days on.There’s clearly been some improvement but it’s slow. I think I’ve had an impact injury to my quadriceps (and specifically to the rectus femoris), the type that footballers get when they get kicked in the thigh. I can walk but not jog, I haven’t been able to drive and I’ve got limited movement in my knee joint because any kind of stretching movement hurts.

Today is parkrun day and if I didn’t do it, I know I would have been subjected to a torrent of hate mail, Sinton-Hewitt would have been on my case and people would have openly wept in the streets of Cambridge. I don’t want that kind of attention so I decided to walk it .Usually Cambridge  attracts around 450 runners and more often than not a few people are walking most of it. Unfortunately, no-one walked it today although I wasn’t too far behind the people in front of me. Cambridge junior parkrun provided all the volunteers , including the 13 year old run director Chloe who gave a very confident pre-run  address to the assembled crowd. I was accompanied by tail runner 12 year old Ben who was very supportive to me and gave vocal encourage to the myriad runners who flashed past us. I hope he didn’t hear me grinding my teeth as I watched them recede into the distance. I came in at just over 48 minutes which, interestingly, is exactly twice the time I do it on this course when I go full pace. Young Benji, who has cerebral palsy, started late and came in a minute behind me. He ran with his mum and came in strongly to enormous applause.

Hopefully, I may be able to gently trot around Cambridge parkrun next weekend and then the subsequent one will be my 250th. It won’t be a PB!

Recent reports show the NHS in dire financial straits, suffering financial mismanagement, imply inefficiencies, experiencing poor staffing levels, missing targets and spending mountains of money on agency staff. If you treat the NHS as a market economy, require it to compete and make a “profit”, continuously emphasise poor financial governance, cut staff levels, employ dodgy borrowing devices with the private sector, continually reinforce the private sector has the nous, nerve and expertise to do a great (and cheaper) job and create standards which are designed to fail because of under funding, then it’s an inevitable set of outcomes.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/09/chain-failings-led-death-charlotte-bevan-newborn-baby-coroner-rules

This is a very, very sad coroner’s report of the death of a mother and her newly born baby. She had a long history of mental ill health, sectioning under the Mental Health Act and had stopped medication in order to breastfeed. Tragically, she left a Bristol maternity hospital unchallenged and killed herself and her child shortly afterwards.

Reading the coroner’s comments and conclusions, it’s hard to comprehend the apparent complete lack of joined up, considered care for a patient who is so obviously at risk.. Vulnerable mothers with a history of severe mental illness have been having pregnancies and births for decades in a health system which is a aware of the level of input required to ensure the safety and well being  of mother and baby. I don’t think this event occurred because of a lack of understanding of the health requirements. I think it’s much more likely to be due to staff shortages, cost and unavailability. These days, I can’t accept that general hospital staff are so out of touch with mental health issues that they are capable of willfully ignoring them.

 

 

 

by

HOOHAAH WIMPOLE HALF MARATHON – I GET CLOBBERED !!!

12079992_1095935427085000_3530819183672775867_o

Here I am, cruising along effortlessly,way ahead of everyone apart from the 102 people in front of me. But this relaxed, highly efficient running style  obscures a painful reality. At just over a mile into the half, we encountered a newly laid rubble farm road, full of large, sharp, vicious stones just waiting to wreak havoc. We had been warned about this surface and it couldn’t be avoided. Nevertheless, I failed to pick my feet up sufficiently, stumbled and fell flat. I don’t remember falling in a race before and I don’t intend to repeat the experience. It was embarrassing and very painful. I landed heavily on my left thigh and hands, got up, reckoned I was fit enough to carry on and started running again. My thigh continued to hurt but there was no discomfort in my knees or hips and the cuts on my hands were minor. I couldn’t see any bones protruding. So I carried on and did 12 more miles. When I stopped running my thigh started to stiffen up and swell. By the evening it was virtually non weight bearing and finding a comfortable position sitting or sleeping was very difficult. It’s more comfortable today although flexibility is limited.

Still, given the fall and residual cold symptoms, I did OK. The weather was lovely, the course a delight (mostly) and I met up with a number of chums who looked after me.

The previous day we did a bit of parkrun tourism and ran Brandon Country Park, a very enjoyable trail path about 40 minutes away from Milton.

11225246_10207469922096979_2812514304206249149_o

I am in a yellow jacket flanked by two running pals who didn’t run at Brandon. Kerry, in the red jacket, has a parkrun PB of 21 mins 24 secs this year and Mike, his arch rival, on my other side, has a PB of 22 mins 8 secs this year. They are both in the 65-69 age bracket and neither have been running longer than 3 years. There’s no justice in parkrun world. I think I’ll object to a higher authority on the grounds that parkrun is a social run not a race. They obviously take it too seriously.

We seem to have done a lot of running and socialising this weekend!

by

Great North Run 2015

DSC_0091

The Great North Run in Newcastle last weekend. 47,000 runners gathered on a closed motorway and ran to South Shields on the coast 13.1 miles away. I wasn’t running but I was there as a spectator and supported Joe, my daughter’s boyfriend and a family friend, Sue and her friend Abi. Also spectating were Ms Alive and Running (Lorna) and Mike, Sue’s husband, previously an arch rival but now so fast even Mo would tremble at the mention of his name. A great race and a great atmosphere but not such a great transport system. We had huge difficulties getting back to Newcastle and my daughter Isobelle missed her connections back to London. Nevertheless it was a good running day and the weather could not have been better.

by

RantRantRantRant…..probably not running enough !

IMG-20150818-WA0000

This Is a clever card on several levels. It encapsulates a British 1950’s sentiment of wholesome perfection, middleclass values and almost religious rapture. It identifies three modern activities which are associated with relaxation, fun or enjoyable self indulgence and, more darkly, a suggestion of medical treatment. And then reveals the existence of hidden and shocking aggression. Of course this description robs it of all humour which is recognisable instantly at first reading. Never mind! It still has the ring of truth if taken literally.

What it highlights is the common existence of feelings of passive aggression and an urge to exact physical retribution with no clear reason why. The right wing and gutter press are full of it with their emphasis on free loading benefit claimants, rhetoric against migrants, lukewarm belief or outright scepticism of asylum seekers and rubbishing as outmoded socialism, or trades union extremism, any policies which are designed  to benefit the majority rather than appeal to the personal gain of individuals. What you get with the evil Tories are clearly defined groups which purport to  threaten, steal, sponge or unfairly gain at the expense of ordinary hard working people, huge business subsidies and tax breaks to benefit their own class, and worthless but convincing reassurances like “The NHS is safe with us”.

Add to this the relatively recent vogue for extended news coverage of titillating emotionality (victims’ statements, views of neighbours expressing incredulity, people demonstrating extreme grief, shock or distress and highly charged press conferences), it’s all too easy to feel emotionally manipulated, diverted and  deceived. You think you are caring to feel upset but in reality it’s a passive, contrived experience which exploits both the grief stricken and the viewer. Not all the time but a lot of the time.

Thank God some great people have the capacity to keep it real. Dead pan humorous  real. Kanye West has just announced his bid for the 2020 American presidency thus giving a lie to the stereotypical view that Americans don’t get irony.

Not too much happening on the running front. Last week I went out with the club and we did a fartlek around Cambridge. I enjoyed it. The newer coaches are trying hard to be inclusive of all running abilities and I feel they are succeeding. It’s not easy to cater for fast runners in their teens, 20s and 30’s as well as slower people in their 60’s and coming up to 70. But the will is there. I think the key is two coaches per road running session so the less fast runners don’t feel neglected or a drag.

I marshalled at Cambridge parkrun on the weekend which I always find an education. My position allowed me to see the start of the race. Those lads at the very front are labouring under the misapprehension that parkrun is a race judging by their stance, concentration, and ability to filter out all extraneous distractions including encouragement as they hurtle around. At the other end of the spectrum are the runners struggling to improve despite carrying an awful lot of weight but wanting to succeed. And they are!

Jeremy Corbyn, prospective leader of the Labour Party has spoken about introducing women only carriages on some trains. I support this. I know this proposal has been roundly condemned by a sizeable proportion of talking heads but speaking on behalf of the male population, we really can’t be trusted to consistently behave ourselves appropriately. Everyday sexism and hormone inspired conduct is still rife. A compete indictment of male behaviour? Certainly.

wpid-wp-1441054110231.jpeg

 

What’s this, then? C P Snow’s eleven novel sequence of novels,. Strangers and Brothers, Penguin editions published between 1962 and 1982 (not original published dates). Two missing but easily obtainable. I have read several of them decades ago but I will now read the entire sequence. They follow the life and career of Lewis Eliot from a provincial town in England to London lawyer, Cambridge don, wartime service in Whitehall, senior civil servant and finally retirement. The novels were published between 1940 and 1970. They encapsulate a previous age and culture which I find absorbing. Otherwise I wouldn’t be reading them, would I? The paperbacks are quite old and the pages are tanned. I think these aged Penguins are a marvel. Estimated time to completion : 2017. So many other things get in the way.