What an event! I only wish I could have ran in it myself. Such a colossal mass of human strength streaming through the streets. 12,000 runners, £3,000,000 raised.
There has been some confusion among my friends as to when or why I pulled out of the marathon. Indeed, on meeting Captain Feld this morning at breakfast he asked why I wasn't in the race, expecting that I would be doing it today. I don't think he was teasing me either!
Well here's what happened:
8th February - last run, feeling on walk back that I had left too short a gap between it and the previous run - calve injury develops
about a week later - recover from injury just in time to get a chest infection, probably caught during all that running I did during, what was, a bitterly cold winter
Doctor orders me not to run, although in reality I would have pulled out anyway, due to the fact that I had missed out on crucial training weeks and could not get myself up to marathon strength in time for the big day
(Mind you, looking at some of the stragglers at the back of today's run, I'm sure I would not have been the only one who had not prepared adequetly!)
Without going into the details of diagnosis, I'm basically fine now, and the Doctor says I can run again
so I will, probably on Friday morning as I have a pretty busy schedule up until then, including going up to Essex for two nights (yah!)
I won't try anthing too fancy obviously - just a 3km jog, literally getting on my feet again
not that I have been entirely off my feet anyway - Yesterday I took a mammoth walk through London, starting at Victoria Station, then to Westminster, then to Leicester Square, the National Portrait Gallery and Foyles, and then up to Oxford Circus before turning East, taking lunch in Holborn before walking all the way to Canary Wharf, from where I took a tube back to Victoria, my feet now dead
and this morning I took a fairly long tour of the seafront marathon route, walking from my house two thirds of the way to Portslade and then down to the Marathon finishing line well past the pier
needless to say I took the bus home, though it was a hardly a direct route as there were not many places to cross from one side of the seafront road to the other
I was not jealous of the marathon runners, but nor did I pity them. Nor did I pity myself. I will be in their shoes in a years time and Friday will mark the start of that, and hopefully a return to those good old days where I posted a new running time every few days.
A little anecdote from London. Was walking down Petticoat Lane. I saw a van pull up to a building and a Bangledeshi man taking some luggage out of the back of the said van. I thought to myself "settling in here? good luck. I'm sure you'll feel right at home [as the entire street is basically Bangledeshi]". It was then that I saw that the building which the luggage was actually being taken into was a luggage store! I laughed pretty hard. Because, let's face it, how often do you see luggage being loaded into a luggage store like that?!?!
ELECTION
I hadn't forgotten
I should clarify that my previous post isn't an attack on the Lib Dems. It's an attack on those people who unthinkingly jump on whatever political cause is easiest to support without really giving any real thought to it. If I want to attack the Lib Dems it will be after a thorough study of their politics. I have downloaded the three party manifestoes
As for my prediction? It's veeeery interesting at the moment, but I don't think the increase in Liberal Democrat support will i) be as acute on polling day as it is now or ii) result in that many more seats. It's still concievable for Liberal Democrat support to roll down to 2005 levels, though I do think it's unlikely they'll stumble any lower than that, as I had been suggesting might happen before all this post-debate polling.
I think I'm not alone in saying I never expected this at all. Still, if it turns out to be good for democracy I won't argue!
There has been some confusion among my friends as to when or why I pulled out of the marathon. Indeed, on meeting Captain Feld this morning at breakfast he asked why I wasn't in the race, expecting that I would be doing it today. I don't think he was teasing me either!
Well here's what happened:
8th February - last run, feeling on walk back that I had left too short a gap between it and the previous run - calve injury develops
about a week later - recover from injury just in time to get a chest infection, probably caught during all that running I did during, what was, a bitterly cold winter
Doctor orders me not to run, although in reality I would have pulled out anyway, due to the fact that I had missed out on crucial training weeks and could not get myself up to marathon strength in time for the big day
(Mind you, looking at some of the stragglers at the back of today's run, I'm sure I would not have been the only one who had not prepared adequetly!)
Without going into the details of diagnosis, I'm basically fine now, and the Doctor says I can run again
so I will, probably on Friday morning as I have a pretty busy schedule up until then, including going up to Essex for two nights (yah!)
I won't try anthing too fancy obviously - just a 3km jog, literally getting on my feet again
not that I have been entirely off my feet anyway - Yesterday I took a mammoth walk through London, starting at Victoria Station, then to Westminster, then to Leicester Square, the National Portrait Gallery and Foyles, and then up to Oxford Circus before turning East, taking lunch in Holborn before walking all the way to Canary Wharf, from where I took a tube back to Victoria, my feet now dead
and this morning I took a fairly long tour of the seafront marathon route, walking from my house two thirds of the way to Portslade and then down to the Marathon finishing line well past the pier
needless to say I took the bus home, though it was a hardly a direct route as there were not many places to cross from one side of the seafront road to the other
I was not jealous of the marathon runners, but nor did I pity them. Nor did I pity myself. I will be in their shoes in a years time and Friday will mark the start of that, and hopefully a return to those good old days where I posted a new running time every few days.
A little anecdote from London. Was walking down Petticoat Lane. I saw a van pull up to a building and a Bangledeshi man taking some luggage out of the back of the said van. I thought to myself "settling in here? good luck. I'm sure you'll feel right at home [as the entire street is basically Bangledeshi]". It was then that I saw that the building which the luggage was actually being taken into was a luggage store! I laughed pretty hard. Because, let's face it, how often do you see luggage being loaded into a luggage store like that?!?!
ELECTION
I hadn't forgotten
I should clarify that my previous post isn't an attack on the Lib Dems. It's an attack on those people who unthinkingly jump on whatever political cause is easiest to support without really giving any real thought to it. If I want to attack the Lib Dems it will be after a thorough study of their politics. I have downloaded the three party manifestoes
As for my prediction? It's veeeery interesting at the moment, but I don't think the increase in Liberal Democrat support will i) be as acute on polling day as it is now or ii) result in that many more seats. It's still concievable for Liberal Democrat support to roll down to 2005 levels, though I do think it's unlikely they'll stumble any lower than that, as I had been suggesting might happen before all this post-debate polling.
I think I'm not alone in saying I never expected this at all. Still, if it turns out to be good for democracy I won't argue!
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