2006 - September

[El Gordo]

Happy New Year to one and all.

[Sweder]

Happy New Year, Andy.
Welcome home.

[marathondan]

This is indeed a good time of year for the Runner's New Year. Summer is a time for relaxation, not work. Surely Autumn and Spring are the best seasons for running. Extreme cold and extreme heat have their places in the catalogue of running experience, but they're a bit... extreme. Give me light rain and a steady breeze any day.

[El Gordo]

This is indeed a good time of year for the Runner's New Year. Summer is a time for relaxation, not work. Surely Autumn and Spring are the best seasons for running. Extreme cold and extreme heat have their places in the catalogue of running experience, but they're a bit... extreme. Give me light rain and a steady breeze any day.

I agree. You only have to look at the race calendars, with the big clumps of events in March/April and September/October to confirm when the most popular running periods are.

Which is best though? I like the spring, and the great sense of relief as you emerge from winter; I like seeing things starting to grow when I'm out on the country lanes; I like the promise of summer.

Autumn has the threat of winter, but it's also a time of reaffirmation, of starting to make plans for the next few months. In my case, it's also the chance to get excited again after the holidays and the heat have done their damage to my routine. This year, as I've explained ad nauseam, it's been even harder, but the changing season really has helped to hand me back my enthusiasm.

Roll on Brighton (see separate theread at http://www.runningcommentary.co.uk/forum...php?t=1088).

[marathondan]

Which is best though?

Which is best, wine or beer? (Personally I have an answer, but others here probably have more refined palates than me.) There's a time for both. Spring, as you say, gives relief from winter and is the traditional season of rebirth. But autumn gives crisp, refreshing relief from the heat, and of course is the traditional time for starting spring marathon training. Either way, it's cool and fresh and great to be out.

[Sweder]

I hate running in summer. It's like some dreadful penance; the extra sweat, the heat, the lack of air. MLCman will remind us that we don’t really have a summer to speak of but I say its all relative.

Give me lashing rain, howling winds, puddles, sleet, soaked-through slippery mud-splattered glory, hot showers and restorative baths.
Wash it down with foaming ale by a crackling fire, smugness racing relief through a gently warming frame.

[glaconman]

It's Autumn for me. The colours, smell and weather all conspire to generate a mild excitement in me. Right from being a small boy. So hopefully I should be out there in the dusk kicking the leaves as I go.

[glaconman]

btw. Good luck to those going over the top for the Two Oceans.

"Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you.
Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you.
The vagabond who's rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
Strike another match, go start anew
And it's all over now, Baby Blue."

[El Gordo]

something calls for you.
Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you.
The vagabond who's rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
Strike another match, go start anew
And it's all over now, Baby Blue."

Ah, the song that reduced me to helpless sobbing in April 1976. I heard it on a pub jukebox, minutes after Liverpool had scored 3 goals in the last 10 minutes of the final match of the season, to deprive QPR of the league title.

[Sweder]

Ah, the song that reduced me to helpless sobbing in April 1976. I heard it on a pub jukebox, minutes after Liverpool had scored 3 goals in the last 10 minutes of the final match of the season, to deprive QPR of the league title.

Surely And it's all over now, Baby Blue-and-White hoops?

[El Gordo]

Surely And it's all over know, Baby Blue-and-White hoops?

At the time, it was a lyrical nuance that seemed unnecessary to contemplate too much. But technically, erm, yes OK, you are correct.

Some sympathy would have been nice.

[El Gordo]

Off to Iceland for a few days (with running gear).

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Some sympathy would have been nice.

Sympathy?

Here??

[marathondan]

Coupla really positive posts there Andy - keep it up.

[Sweder]

and then, about two tunes later, that's when Dylan came in with the bottles of Guinness...

I've seriously underestimated the Great Man!
How quick we are to judge. I shall play Blood On The Tracks on my next run . . .






. . . oh, hang on . . .

Dylan took it up to his mouth, took a swig, pulled a face and said, My God what is this? And then he tipped the rest of it on the floor...

Ha! Thought so . . . damned hippie bastard.
He should be flogged.

Good to hear about the run, Andy. I hope the beer-swiller continues to cackle at you for weeks and months to come, right up to the point where he turns crimson and slides off his well-worn bar stool.

[El Gordo]

Still no beer, 10 days after the last. Am definitely thinking in terms of staying off the booze for a while, and perhaps even till April. Seems too drastic to make it a commitment just yet though. Way too expensive to drink in Iceland, which is pretty helpful.

Iceland is a wonderful place. Quite surreal. Thye geology is bizarre. Nigel would be creaming himself.

More info when I get back. Its too complicated trying to find my way around the keyboard to write much now. I cant bear not being able to find the apostrophe.

Managed a 45 minute plod this morning without stopping, so am very pleased. The Iffley Road track is to Roger Bannister as the Egilsstadir Ring Road is now to me.

Andy

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Still no beer, 10 days after the last. Am definitely thinking in terms of staying off the booze for a while, and perhaps even till April.

I'm shocked. Someone'd better call M

Mate, for all the ribbing you get, you're still among friends. If things are really that bad, you can talk to us. There's no need for anything that drastic.

I mean, I take the occasional week or two off the booze myself (honestly!), but six months? We need to talk...

[Sweder]

Managed a 45 minute plod this morning without stopping, so am very pleased. Andy

Slipped that one in at the end there . . . that's a bit more than a 'getting back out there' effort - nice one.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

I have a similar story. There was a function kind of thing at work, and a colleague came rushing over telling me there was someone that I "had to meet", whereupon I was introduced to the one and only Joseph King! My immaculate timing and suitable reposte was overshadowed only by Mr.King's immediately dismissive reply...

Upon being introduced, I said (stoney faced but quick as a flash) "You must be joking", to which he merely turned and walked away, saying "I get that a lot".

I never saw him again.

[Sweder]

Great stuff on Iceland, Andy, it sounds fabulous.
On my five mile jet-lagged jaunt to BlackCap today I heard Immigrant Song by Led Zep and it made me think of your tales of wilderness and wonder as I ran through the Sussex hills.

We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying:
Valhalla, I am coming!

A record time for BlackCap 2006, too.
Need to write up Shenzhen but I'm too lazy/ buggered/ knackered to start.
Keep up the good plodding mate.