Val Doonican

[Bierzo Baggie]

Yep, the rocking chair, the rocking chair..

Val Doonican is sitting on a rocking chair with a chunky Christmas sweater and a guitar. The inevitable log fire warms the comfortably furnished room. He’s singing “some of my best friends, some of them old ones, some of them new...” And I thought, that is the story of my season, and the previous one and the next one and the next one ...and so on... That’s me on that rocking chair that is.

Running is fun, healthy for body and soul (obsessive behaviour apart...). I’d probably run even if there weren’t any races to do. I’m getting noticably slower and it’s taking longer to recover each year but I’ll tell you what...

I still love those races.

I’ll do the same races year after year and will continue doing so for the foreseeable future even if I’m finishing last or getting timed out.

And I can see myself turning into a Val Doonican with muddy trainers and varicose veins, rambling on into late middle age and beyond.

Try to stick a few fresh, new ones into the mixer from time to time, but the more familiar races mark the changing seasons for me. They form part of my skin.

Expect to hear the same old tunes.