2008 - June

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Mate it's bloody hard to respond to a gut-wrenching post like that. I suppose the thing that has always impressed me about your writing is that it's certainly eloquent, but also incredibly honest in terms of your physical and emotional response to the sport. Whereas most writers will write to promote running, you've always blogged from the heart, telling both the good and bad of it, and that's what we all relate to here.

If it's to be that you quit the sport, so be it. All good things come to an end, and I can honestly say I've read your London and Chicago marathon training blogs many times over, and they will continue to motivate me for years to come, so it's not like you've left us in the lurch - far from it!

But I gather you English-types don't take compliments that well ("oh it was nothing really, I mean it was only 42.2 kilometres"), so maybe I'll stop there before it sounds too much like a eulogy.

I'm sad yes, but grateful too.

Thanks, mate - have one of these!