Someone I admired early in my plodding career was Julie Welch, whose resignedly matter-of-fact tale of the London Marathon, 26.2, I found strangely inspiring. Her piece on the Serpies website still brings a distant sheen to the old eyeballs, ten years after I last read it. The lachrymosity is part nostalgia, part melancholy, part euphoria, and part Chianti.
Her post-running life has been somewhat pedestrian: she became a long distance walker. Some ex-runners crank up the heart rate with cycling, or slope off to the piste. Others, unable to cope with the indignity of retirement, retreat to the potting shed with a half bottle of vodka concealed inside their Daily Express.
Me? As mentioned in my last, somewhat distant post, I bought a rowing machine — and even used it for a while. Then came a throbbing ankle, a rattling knee, and an insatiable curiosity to learn how the old flame of fine Tuscan wine had been getting on without me. It didn’t take long to get our knickers off again. We consumed each other across the summer and through the autumn, until I got fed up again and negotiated a bleak midwinter ceasefire.
The timing, just after Christmas, wasn’t ideal. My 1,000 kilometre drive back from London had a tantalising soundtrack — the comforting clink of a dozen corking Aussie wines. Included were six Domaine A Cabernets (2000 vintage), bought seven or eight years earlier, and kept in storage. Shortly after getting these beauts home, the rapprochement became just too cordial again — an irony it’s hard to out-think.
In March, the fog lifted from the lake and the snow began to melt, exposing another desire to get exercising without these self-inflicted complications. It’s been a good couple of months; so good that I appear to have pledged a trip to Almeria in 2017 for the Medio Maraton weekend. It may be flapping slightly in the weedy breeze of apathy, but the manifesto is still there, nailed to the cathedral door.
The 21 kms of the Almeria Half stretch further than my reach these days, and I’m struggling to even see the 9K start line, let alone the finish. These trusty old running goggles with their deep rose tint are still in service, but worn at an increasingly jaunty angle.
7 comments On So.
It’s a pity you tore your ACL, Suzie. I hope you get better from your injury and you can be fit enough for Almería half or 9 K next year. Best of luck! Looking forward to meeting you.
Saludos desde Almería
PS. I expect the situation in Fort McMurray is better and its inhabitants have been able to go back home.
Good to ‘hear’ your voice again EG! Run, walk, crawl – whatever you want to do, you have to be in Almeria in 2017. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone. And I may not be running the half. I went and tore my ACL so need surgery to fix it. I don’t know if a half is viable, but do hope to at least do the 9km. Maybe we can carry each other around?
I’m very glad to be able to read you here again.
I hope you’ll be fit enough to do the 9 K in Almería next year, A. Little by little you’ll get in shape.
Looking forward to meeting you here in a few months’ time.
Saludos desde Almería
Greetings, BB — and splendid to hear the product of your ones and zeroes too.
As is traditional every May, I dust off my overpriced Swiss walking shoes and tell myself what I need to do. Last year that’s as far as it got. The previous year I added a couple of legs, as it were, to my ‘walk across Switzerland’ but didn’t write about ’em.
I am hereby dusting off the same footwear, and will get out soon — perhaps next weekend — though I’m dangerously unfit at the moment.
I went for a glorious drive today, winding up near Grindelwald (Eiger territory). Went for a gentle stroll and realised how hikingly undernourished I am. Now that I’ve addressed it, I need to push the envelope. Will try to post.
Glad it was the Publish button and not the other one ….great to hear from you! Like the sound of long distance walking by the way, especially where you live. An excellent activity for those of us who enjoy meandering.
Ah.
I hit the Publish button rather than Save. Oh well. No harm done. I must have been swept up in Eurovision euphoria.
Ah yes, the beloved Domaine A, one of my favourites, albeit generally out of my price range. By far the best merlot I have ever consumed came from there, and their cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir are very nearly as good. I actually have quite an association with that vineyard, having been a regular customer in its previous life, called Stoney, after which they have now named their second label wines, which are blisteringly good value.
One of the reasons I keep running is so that I may stand some chance of reaching a grand old age, as we have a few wines that won’t reach their peak for another 30, perhaps 40 years. Without the regular running, I don’t stand much of a chance of ever pulling those corks.
Run on, EG, or find something similar to keep you alive. Your wine cellar demands it.