It's tempting to play the "bad cop" here and tell you it's your own damn fault for drinking all that black stuff in Montreal.
But I won't.
Because it is - as GeeMan and Splodder have already indicated - a fine effort to get out there at all in your present condition. I mean, like after all that hard work at the conference and everything.
Well, there's nothing like a crap run to kick you squarely in the pants and that's the truth.
Jet-lag roused me at just after five and I just couldn't shake the idea of a pre-dawn run. There's no logic here; crap run, tired legs, get up in the dark, haul on the Offies, saddle up the hounds and hit the hills. What was I expecting? Exorcism perhaps? Redemption? That's a little high-falutin', even for me. Still, there it is: for whatever reason I found myself out on the muddy trails in the near-dark, chugging onto the downs before reason had chance to throw off the duvet.
Turned out to be a splendid idea. Not only did I move a couple of minutes closer to a respectable time for the course (and actually felt better about it more's the point) I got to see the sun rise over the Ouse valley. A featureless smothering of low, dull cloud greeted my first wobbly steps but by the time I'd hauled my lard up Blackcap and turned to face the east a glorious orange-pink letterbox had opened up on the horizon, offering a cheeky peek into the day ahead. It filled me with hope and expectation as I launched off the summit, feet plunging into yielding, rain-sodden turf. These moments make it all worthwhile. Even as I laboured manfully home, breath hee-haw-ing in and out as I tried desperately to maintain any posture other than 'slumped' on the slippery flint I knew this was better stuff. Squadrons of Starlings launched across the fields, their take-off roundly heckled by the ever-prescent Rooks, unpurturbed by my lurching form as I steamed my sweaty way home.
Musically PR was still off the boil. Happily at about the time I started to feel the benefits of a second outing in 18 hours Alice served up a classic piece of Bon Scott ACDC. Night Prowler, with its low-slung, sleezy backline and Scotts' menacing, mischievous delivery, was controversially linked to the infamous Richard Ramirez, known in the mid-eighties as the Night Stalker. Ramirez, a viscious raper and killer of women, left a baseball cap with the band's logo at one of his crime scenes and, once captured, confessed to a liking for this particular song. There followed a public outcry in Los Angeles (where the killings took place) with calls to ban the group from the airwaves. The Aussie rockers protested their innocence, claiming the lyrics referred to a boy sneaking into his girlfriends' bedroom at night. I have to say the lyrics suggest otherwise, but none of this deflects from the excellence of the production or the warming effect of hearing it at sunrise on a deserted Sussex hillside after half an hour of Journey and Boston. And there again any allegiance with nefarious activities is somewhat undermined by the last-gasp, almost lost in the fade-out hommage to Robin Williams's Mork (Mork & Mindy). Nanoo Nanoo indeed Bon; rest in peace old son.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Did you know that Alice Cooper is touring again, and playing Brighton in December? Anyone who saw the band in the 70s ("Welcome to my Nightmare" era) will feel a strong twinge of nostalgia.
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
(27-10-2009, 08:23 AM)El Gordo Wrote: Did you know that Alice Cooper is touring again, and playing Brighton in December?
Nope, but I do know that Motorhead have a full UK tour through November with special guest support: Girlschool. Suspect I'll be testing my Won'tPower to the limit next month. Plus I'm dragging the family off to see the magnificent ZZ Top tomorrow night Rocktober indeed ...
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
(27-10-2009, 08:23 AM)El Gordo Wrote: Did you know that Alice Cooper is touring again, and playing Brighton in December?
Nope, but I do know that Motorhead have a full UK tour through November with special guest support: Girlschool. Suspect I'll be testing my Won'tPower to the limit next month. Plus I'm dragging the family off to see the magnificent ZZ Top tomorrow night Rocktober indeed ...
Well as we're in full confessional mode, I'll come clean and admit to grabbing a couple of tickets for Status Quo in November
I've managed to avoid them for 40 years, but decided I should catch them before they shuffle off to that stadium in the sky. Actually, main reason I got tix is that, curiously, they are appearing in a small venue (Basingstoke Anvil) in amongst their megadome dates, and I reckon they could go down a storm in a little place like that.
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
El Gordo Wrote:Did you know that Alice Cooper is touring again, and playing Brighton in December?
I know I keep harping on about this guy, but the (apparent) fact is that not only does he seem to continually tour (which is not that far from the truth), but he also records two radio programmes each day and plays 18 holes of golf.
Each day.
I know there is at least a large grain of truth to all this because last time he toured Oz (or maybe second last time) an audio engineer and heavy metal mate of mine slummed it as a roadie for him for a spell and confirmed that even on the road he continues to record his radio shows and really does get out for two rounds of golf every morning.
I bet he doesn't drink seven pints of Guinness and a shot of Oban each night though. Unlike at least one RCer who can't help himself when on tour.
Technically still an October post ... managed a Halloween B&H ParkRun 5k yesterday. The park was stuffed with costumed freaks - devils, pumpkin people, Stevio in drag (any excuse) Jason in his red curly wig (I'm not sure he knew it was fancy dress but still). Caught up with so many folks I haven't seen for yonks; Cam, Fi, Jase, Simon, Gillybean, Marian, ladyrunner (avec great Pumpkin soup), John, Jeanette ... coffee and convivial conversation afterwards (apologies to Gillybean for banging on about Almeria a little too much - still, hope you can make it).
Nothing special on the run itself. I curtailed my night with the Plodder & Capn Tom just as they gravitated towards the curry house. 5ks are tough enough for me at the moment without wedging a canonball of Ruby Murray into my lower intestines late the night before. 24:26, a marginal improvement on Montreal though 2 minutes shy of my previous best. Room for improvement shall we say.
Pictures to follow - for now I'm gearing myself up to face the Mother of all Hoolies blowing outside my quaking front door. 8 cliff-top miles await. The duvets' Siren song is mighty powerful as I hammer away in the gloom. The pear tree in our front garden appears to be bowing to the hedge an a Waynes Word/ Alice Cooper 'We're Not Worthy' style. I haven't run in stuff like this for ages.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
haking head in disbelief icon:
Rocktober indeed ...
