Month: June 2002

Another early morning run: not successful. I woke at 5.30 and lay there in a fog. I was just a semi-detached spectator as a fight broke out between Sleep and Run. Five minutes later I was sitting on the stairs, wearily tying the laces of my Brooks, having accepted the inevitable. The morning came straight from the Running Paradise catalogue. The sun was already bright, but the air remained cool and fresh from the night.… READ MORE.... …

The daily train journey always has some diversion. Hot on the heels of my man-with-peach-bathrobe, another weird sight on the train to London this morning: at Slough someone got on with two lifesized cardboard cutouts of Michael Owen and Paul Scholes. By this time the train was getting full, so he stood there, leaning against the carriage wall with an arm around each.… READ MORE.... …

Looks like the UK Brain Tumour Society will be the recipients of any money I manage to raise. More news when I get it. My 3.67 miler this evening was a little disappointing. I was all geared up to have a go at beating my record again, currently 37:27 (that’s a 10:12 pace – I must edge down below 10 minutes a mile), and I was making pretty good progress when, about half way round, I came across half a dozen bewildered French cyclists squinting helplessly over an Ordnance Survey map of the area.… READ MORE.... …

Have just realised that none of last week’s entries were uploaded properly. They are now, I hope. I keep meaning to redesign this site but if you hand-code everything it’s a bit daunting. And as you can tell I don’t have a great deal to talk about as Monday is a day of rest. I spoke to the Chicago hotel to change the dates slightly, but that’s about the only marathon-related thing to have happened today.… READ MORE.... …

Cross-training day. Up early to nip round to the gym for 15 minutes on the exercise bike, 20 minutes on the step machine and 15 on the rower. Re-emerged dripping with sweat and ready for our four-course Sussex lunch. The meal was great, but not even the later stroll around the gardens at Nymans was enough to assuage the nagging certainty that, unlike my last marathon training programme, this one is actually increasing my weight.… READ MORE.... …

Feeling absolutely great is an absolutely great feeling. An excellent run this evening – 7.5 miles along the canal in the twilight. Wonderful weather for running. Cool but still bright at first, with the sun slowly completing its descent through the 88 minutes I was running. It wasn’t a very fast pace but I was delighted to run the second half (43 mins) two minutes faster than the first, over the same ground.… READ MORE.... …

Oh bugger, a calamitous match for England as they go down 2-1 to Brazil. The result was bad enough, but it was the manner of their passing that was so deflating. England were clueless. Despite going into the lead, and giving the nation 20 minutes or so of joy and hope, they couldn’t build on it, nor could they even cling to it.… READ MORE.... …

Spent most of yesterday evening drinking beer and chortling in central London, but had recovered enough by tonight to do the usual 3.67 miler in record time of around 10:10 pace. A great run for me. The nerves are beginning to hit. Early tomorrow morning it’s England – Brazil for a place in the World Cup semi-finals. The optimism is enormous.… READ MORE.... …

Another new experience. Crikey, life keeps churning ’em out, doesn’t it? Up at 05:45 for a pre-work run. I did my normal 3.67 miler. It’s supposed to be 3, but I’m trying to slightly edge up the distance this time around. A glorious morning. The air is fresh and cool, and the only traffic on the small local lanes is made of rabbit.… READ MORE.... …

I had the strange experience of receiving a phone call from New Delhi on my mobile while travelling home on the train this evening. It was a chap called Rajesh from Air India, pleasantly telling me I had 15 minutes to give him my passport number to ensure that our flights to Chicago could be kept at the ludicrously low price of £250.… READ MORE.... …