Wednesday, April 30, 2014
The curse of the first time runner...
Let's remember why we're doing this - putting (in my case at least) an ageing body through hours of gym work, swimming, road running and general keep fit; it's to keep ourselves healthy and hopefully, therefore, to live longer. There's an old runner's joke, however, that goes: "I was perfectly fit until I started running..." and although in my case although I certainly wasn't, the litany of injuries I've had while running beggars belief. Two broken toes, dodgy ankles, torn groin muscle, strained hip flexors, shin splints and the daddy of them all, my Chondromalacia Patella. Or, to use the technical term, fucked right knee. I'm not counting blood blisters, blackened toenails or constant Athlete's Foot as that seems churlish somehow.
It would be enough to make most people stop what they are doing and go and do something easier instead but we are a strange bunch. Like Motorbike riders describing their various hospitalisations and wearing them like a badge of honour, runners tend to talk about not their times for a particular course, or the great new route they've been doing or even their new personal best - they tend to talk about all the injuries and mishaps they've had along the way. And there is that added rush you get when that careless dog owner allows their charge to run in front of you and you ended up vaulting the extending dog lead like Dick Fosbury during his Eureka moment. But I, of course exaggerate. This only happened to me twice on my last run - but that, for now is another story.
The real reason we are doing this of course, the 10K run that is, is in memory of our friend and uncle Shaun Denney, and I feel before I getting into all the running nonsense I should share a couple of memories of him.
Some of you reading this may remember the dark days of 1980s music - Rick Astley topped the charts and guitar music meant the likes of Haircut 100. Dismal time. Rock, it seemed, at least to Radio 1, was, well, hiding under one. To combat this myself and my mate Kieran took up arms, and amplifiers, and took over the garage of 28 Cranleigh Drive every Saturday morning, intent on becoming the next big rock band. An open invitation to everyone we knew result in a real hotchpotch of attendees over the months we years we did it and a few times Mr Denney graced us with his presence and his Telecaster guitar. One day he told us he had joined a friend's band as guitarist and would be starting rehearsal next week. Good on him we thought. A couple of weeks later, we met up again and asked him how it was all going. He said quite well, but they were looking for a guitar player. Confused, we asked "I thought you were the guitar player. Completely nonplussed he replied "I was, until they heard me play. Now I'm the singer."
Another memory is of my girlfriend's 21st birthday when all of her brothers' friends were also invited. It was fancy dress, and Shaun insisted for weeks before he was coming as a kebab - hopefully not a badly packed one...this went on and on. Every time we saw him he would tell us about the kebab costume, and Lisa was wondering how much this costume would be out of place at her party. Come the day and all Nick's friends stroll in. There's Cleopatra, there was the grim reaper, there was even Agnetha from Abba, but no sigh of a kebab anywhere. And then we spotted him, dressed not as a kebab, but as a druid. The irony of going from a man-made unnatural product to green friend of the earth should not be lost on us bearing in mind Shaun's path in life...
The joint training for the race has, to be honest, been a disaster. Despite being fit, Caitlin is no runner yet, and things I wouldn't even think about after so many years pounding the pavements are tripping her up, so to speak. Our second run out together couldn't be done at our normal time of 19.00 due to various reasons, and so we meet at 15.00. Fine, except it is an extremely hot days and whilst I'm experienced at running in this heat (and am wearing shorts and a short sleeved running top) Caitlin isn't and is also in black running tights and about three tops. A couple of K in and she starts feeling sick and has gone completely white. Heatstroke. It's all we can do to get to a bench and get some water down her! I'd given advice on running shoes, *ahem*undergarments, and socks, but never thought to say wear less in the heat. My bad! By the time we get our young runner home, we've managed 3.5K but she is still very disappointed in herself, but it was my fault!
Next time out we are on a little break in Kington, Herefordshire and have planned a couple of short morning runs just to keep our hands in. There is a lovely looking park a short jog away that looks ideal - it's 750 metres around so perfect for ten laps and home. Unfortunately, unlike Swanley park there is no footpath, so we're running on grass. This is always a minefield for a runner, as one misstep and ankles, knees or hips can be given a painful jolt. After less than two laps, the almost inevitable happens and Caitlin twists a knee. Terrible bad luck, but there is nothing to do other than quit for the day, as you cannot run this type of injury off. Such bad luck, it seems after being all cocky after our first fantastic run, fate has turned round and slapped us back in place!
Oh well, you lovely people have kept the money flowing in - many thanks, we're very humbled! - and so even if it ends up as a three-legged crawl we will be there on the 13th July for as long as it takes! Off to the gym again now - it's seems wise to be able to see one's feet if you're going for a run!
It would be enough to make most people stop what they are doing and go and do something easier instead but we are a strange bunch. Like Motorbike riders describing their various hospitalisations and wearing them like a badge of honour, runners tend to talk about not their times for a particular course, or the great new route they've been doing or even their new personal best - they tend to talk about all the injuries and mishaps they've had along the way. And there is that added rush you get when that careless dog owner allows their charge to run in front of you and you ended up vaulting the extending dog lead like Dick Fosbury during his Eureka moment. But I, of course exaggerate. This only happened to me twice on my last run - but that, for now is another story.
The real reason we are doing this of course, the 10K run that is, is in memory of our friend and uncle Shaun Denney, and I feel before I getting into all the running nonsense I should share a couple of memories of him.
Some of you reading this may remember the dark days of 1980s music - Rick Astley topped the charts and guitar music meant the likes of Haircut 100. Dismal time. Rock, it seemed, at least to Radio 1, was, well, hiding under one. To combat this myself and my mate Kieran took up arms, and amplifiers, and took over the garage of 28 Cranleigh Drive every Saturday morning, intent on becoming the next big rock band. An open invitation to everyone we knew result in a real hotchpotch of attendees over the months we years we did it and a few times Mr Denney graced us with his presence and his Telecaster guitar. One day he told us he had joined a friend's band as guitarist and would be starting rehearsal next week. Good on him we thought. A couple of weeks later, we met up again and asked him how it was all going. He said quite well, but they were looking for a guitar player. Confused, we asked "I thought you were the guitar player. Completely nonplussed he replied "I was, until they heard me play. Now I'm the singer."
Another memory is of my girlfriend's 21st birthday when all of her brothers' friends were also invited. It was fancy dress, and Shaun insisted for weeks before he was coming as a kebab - hopefully not a badly packed one...this went on and on. Every time we saw him he would tell us about the kebab costume, and Lisa was wondering how much this costume would be out of place at her party. Come the day and all Nick's friends stroll in. There's Cleopatra, there was the grim reaper, there was even Agnetha from Abba, but no sigh of a kebab anywhere. And then we spotted him, dressed not as a kebab, but as a druid. The irony of going from a man-made unnatural product to green friend of the earth should not be lost on us bearing in mind Shaun's path in life...
The joint training for the race has, to be honest, been a disaster. Despite being fit, Caitlin is no runner yet, and things I wouldn't even think about after so many years pounding the pavements are tripping her up, so to speak. Our second run out together couldn't be done at our normal time of 19.00 due to various reasons, and so we meet at 15.00. Fine, except it is an extremely hot days and whilst I'm experienced at running in this heat (and am wearing shorts and a short sleeved running top) Caitlin isn't and is also in black running tights and about three tops. A couple of K in and she starts feeling sick and has gone completely white. Heatstroke. It's all we can do to get to a bench and get some water down her! I'd given advice on running shoes, *ahem*undergarments, and socks, but never thought to say wear less in the heat. My bad! By the time we get our young runner home, we've managed 3.5K but she is still very disappointed in herself, but it was my fault!
Next time out we are on a little break in Kington, Herefordshire and have planned a couple of short morning runs just to keep our hands in. There is a lovely looking park a short jog away that looks ideal - it's 750 metres around so perfect for ten laps and home. Unfortunately, unlike Swanley park there is no footpath, so we're running on grass. This is always a minefield for a runner, as one misstep and ankles, knees or hips can be given a painful jolt. After less than two laps, the almost inevitable happens and Caitlin twists a knee. Terrible bad luck, but there is nothing to do other than quit for the day, as you cannot run this type of injury off. Such bad luck, it seems after being all cocky after our first fantastic run, fate has turned round and slapped us back in place!
Oh well, you lovely people have kept the money flowing in - many thanks, we're very humbled! - and so even if it ends up as a three-legged crawl we will be there on the 13th July for as long as it takes! Off to the gym again now - it's seems wise to be able to see one's feet if you're going for a run!
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Runners Blog 2 : Rose Coloured Glasses
It's sometimes easy to lose focus while training for a race; I can do the run tomorrow, I'm already fit enough, skipping a day's training won't hurt, the list goes on and on, so it's good to have something come up to remind you exactly why you shouldn't be making excuses, and should be putting in the hard yards to help those who cannot help themselves....
Firstly though, a massive thank you to everyone who has sponsored Caitlin and I so far. Words cannot express how humbling it is to have friends, family and complete strangers put their hands in their pockets to sponsor us for this run. We hope the faith you have shown in us is warranted when we hit the road in anger!
And secondly, the huge reminder this week that while we are running in memory of Shaun Denney, we are hoping to help find a cure for brain tumours for the people who are suffering now. This link shows how they can devastate the lives of both young and old. Here is little Jack's story: Jack's Star Wars Funeral
So, on to the training. I've pretty much doubled my "go to the gym once a week and ponce around a bit" - I'm now poncing about twice as much. I've added some swimming into the mix of running, rowing and floor work (stomach exercises for those not in the know) but nearly drowned first time out, managing a measly 10 lengths! Luckily this left me suitably chastened, and next time in it was a much more acceptable 40 lengths which is 1K. If it rains heavily on the day of the run, I think I'm in with a chance...
I'm also pretty much running 25K a week, with at least one of the runs broken down into interval training, which is a bit fast and then a bit slow - repeat ad nauseam...this means the run takes longer and is less fun - although most of you reading this probably don't associate the words "Running" and "fun" together at the best of times! Don't worry though, that's why Caitlin and I are doing it for you :-)
On the evening of Friday 11th May I had all my assumptions regarding how training Caitlin for the run should go blown out of the water within five seconds of us starting our first session together. I'd assumed that getting her up to anything close to the speed to run a 10K from scratch was going to be the biggest challenge, but boy was I wrong. You see an 18 year old who is fit from doing dance lessons for 14 years turns out to be a different prospect from an 18 year old who gets out of breath walking to the bus stop - the irony being that they are the same person!
Caitlin's fitness, you see, is like a sprinter's. She is used to burning her energy in an explosive five minute dance routine, not a drawn out 30 minute run. Still very fit, but a very, very different type of fitness. And so it is that when I press go on the stop watch, I find myself trying to catch up with a Gazelle like creature who has fizzed out of the starting blocks like a startled Hare, and is half way to the miniature train tracks (it's a Swanley Park thing ;-) ) before I catch up and try to slow her down! We're going to be running for an hour plus, not five minutes. This was a problem I hadn't foreseen, trying to slow someone down!
Fortunately, once, I caught up, we were able to turn the run into an interval based session, and managed a full 5K before we called it time. This is a whole 1K more than Caitlin had managed before, and rightly so she was rather pleased with herself.
So, here is the conundrum. In one way we are massively ahead of the curve for a beginner's 10K. Normally 5K would come up after 5 WEEKS of training, not one session. On the other hand, slowing someone down enough so they don't need a two minute walk every 1K is a huge challenge in itself, the Horns of a Dilemma indeed! Some training nous is required now, but I'm sure between us we are going to conquer this mountain.
Let me end now on why this post is called "Rose Coloured Glasses". Sometimes a piece of music can remind you of a very specific time of your life, with almost crystal clear clarity at times. For instance, if the Phil Oakley track "Together in Electric Dreams" comes on the radio, I'm immediately transported back to a specific time featuring my metallic blue Mini Metro, and the Adventures of Moz and Rob in Sidcup :-) When I play Marillion's Fantastic Place (my funeral song btw, you should all learn it for me!) I cannot help but think of my late brother-in-law Michael Turner. It's not that the song is even about losing a loved one in that way, but the opening line is just so apposite; "It's always a struggle to let somebody go", that it gets me every time...
So, onto Transatlantic's Rose Coloured Glasses. Me and Moz are at a gig a few days after Shaun's passing when they play that track. The lyrics hit me in the heart like a dagger, and before you know it I'm in floods of tears:
When the ending came I said goodbye
I hope to meet him on the other side
And I don't believe I wear rose colored glasses
And I believe we have the greatest hope
(I believe we have the greatest hope)
And I'll sing this as we're scattering his ashes
I believe the man has gone back home...
(I believe the man has gone back home)
This world is not our home
You can live like a rollin' stone
But you cannot escape with your life
We seek a city on fire
With the heart of a child's desire
We will cross that bridge
and enter into life....real life...
Rose Coloured Glasses by Transatlantic
And again I'm reminded why I'm putting my ageing body through this torture after having "retired" from running nine years ago. While I can still put one foot in front of the other, I am SO much better off than those less fortunate than me, suffering from this awful disease, and that is little enough to make me stop whinging, put the trainers on and get the fuck out there and do this...
Tuesday, April 08, 2014
Runner's Blog 1 :- A challenge accepted...
It is one of life's biggest mysteries to me; how some people don't get a fair crack of the whip, and others who should be strung up by their balls, covered in honey and left dangling in the woods, seem to go on and on and on...This is the bit where I suppose "faith" comes in, but unfortunately I have a fairly short supply of the particular commodity.
What I do know, was that Shaun Denney was one of the good ones. Loyal friend, loving uncle, No1 brother and son to his family. Zoologist, enviromentalist, guitar geek and all round good guy. A man loved by all who met him who deserved more than 42 years the he got before this terrible disease robbed first of his dignity and then his life. Despite everything he went through in his 14 odd years battling the brain tumour; through cheomotheraphy, hair loss (although let's be fair, that one was relative ;-), treatments leaving him addled and confused, the one thing it NEVER took away was his spirit. Right to the end, although stuck in a hospice bed, he came up with ways to challenge and frustrate his family and friends in equal measure - I mean, who in Cornwall would even have heard of Gypsy Tart? I hope when my time comes I have the spirit to be an awkward bugger right to the end, and squeeze every last drop I can out of life.
To honour a life short but well lived, I've agreed to run the British 10K on July 13th with my goddaughter, and Shaun's favourite niece (I know that for a FACT!) Caitlin Morris in order to raise funds towards The Brain Tumour Charity, an organisation that helped Shaun a lot over the years. We've set a target of £500, but I know we can can do better than that with all your support. Think about the fun of it; a fat old bloke and a beautiful young dancer trying to make it around some of the most iconic landmarks of the capital, all without either their dodgy knees or wonky backs giving out. Actually we could run a book on how far in the first one of us conks out...
Some of you may feel I being a bit disingenuous regarding my running, as I run 10K in the gym 2 or three times a week, but that's relatively easy. There's no other runners to avoid for a start; or kerbs, potholes, drains, manhole covers or fallen rivals. to say nothing of the fact that running on the road is like permanently running up hill compared to a treadmill, even the downhill bits. And as amazing as it seems, especially to me, the last road race I did was back in 2005! So there is a lot of training to do.
We hope to do Shaun proud and help other people struck by this terrible disease. I will blog regularly regarding our progress, or lack of it, and hope you enjoy and appreciate our endeavours enough to maybe give a couple of quid to help others.
Must dash now as the gym is beckoning - the hard yards start here!
What I do know, was that Shaun Denney was one of the good ones. Loyal friend, loving uncle, No1 brother and son to his family. Zoologist, enviromentalist, guitar geek and all round good guy. A man loved by all who met him who deserved more than 42 years the he got before this terrible disease robbed first of his dignity and then his life. Despite everything he went through in his 14 odd years battling the brain tumour; through cheomotheraphy, hair loss (although let's be fair, that one was relative ;-), treatments leaving him addled and confused, the one thing it NEVER took away was his spirit. Right to the end, although stuck in a hospice bed, he came up with ways to challenge and frustrate his family and friends in equal measure - I mean, who in Cornwall would even have heard of Gypsy Tart? I hope when my time comes I have the spirit to be an awkward bugger right to the end, and squeeze every last drop I can out of life.
To honour a life short but well lived, I've agreed to run the British 10K on July 13th with my goddaughter, and Shaun's favourite niece (I know that for a FACT!) Caitlin Morris in order to raise funds towards The Brain Tumour Charity, an organisation that helped Shaun a lot over the years. We've set a target of £500, but I know we can can do better than that with all your support. Think about the fun of it; a fat old bloke and a beautiful young dancer trying to make it around some of the most iconic landmarks of the capital, all without either their dodgy knees or wonky backs giving out. Actually we could run a book on how far in the first one of us conks out...
Some of you may feel I being a bit disingenuous regarding my running, as I run 10K in the gym 2 or three times a week, but that's relatively easy. There's no other runners to avoid for a start; or kerbs, potholes, drains, manhole covers or fallen rivals. to say nothing of the fact that running on the road is like permanently running up hill compared to a treadmill, even the downhill bits. And as amazing as it seems, especially to me, the last road race I did was back in 2005! So there is a lot of training to do.
We hope to do Shaun proud and help other people struck by this terrible disease. I will blog regularly regarding our progress, or lack of it, and hope you enjoy and appreciate our endeavours enough to maybe give a couple of quid to help others.
Must dash now as the gym is beckoning - the hard yards start here!
