Warning – this post will contain elements of self-pity, memory-loss and – forgot what I was going to say !

Apologies from the outset as I wrote this a few months back and forgot to click the ‘Publish’ button!  What can I say !!!!!  Old age comes to us all !!!

It’s now almost 10 months since I last posted a blog. That could be for a number of reasons:-

1. Old age –  Forgotten passwords, how to use the blog, why am I writing, what am I writing and even why did I come into this room !

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2.     Nothing momentous or exciting has happened in the last 11 months!

or

3.        Why would anyome want to read it in the first place ?

and lastly –

4.   I’ve run so many races/runs that I just haven’t had time to put pen to paper or (to be down their with the kids !) fingers to keys. – they probably don’t say that but hey !

So why am I writing it now, I hear you shout –  !

Well – and this is the self pity bit – I haven’t run now for almost 3 weeks.  Now that may not seem a long time but to me it seems like years.  In fact so much so I had to go back 3 times to my calendar to actually sit there and count the days.  It has seemed like an eternity ! Now I realise this is pathetic and “Just get over yerself !” I hear you shout again ! But it has seemed like ages ago that I ran.  I also realise that my little “Knee problem” is absolutely nothing compared to what others ( those in particular that Im trying to raise money for !) are going through, so my apologies for whinging !! So I feel a need for a recap and what has brought me to this self-pitying stage !

My aim was to run 1 or 2 races every month leading up to London Marathon 2024.  Well I did ! And if I went through each of the runs step by step; and that’s an awful lot of steps; all of you particularly me would have fallen asleep ( must be the old age !) and this blog would make the Guinness Book of Records for being the longest boring blog on record. Currently up there in the top ten !   So not only am I going to be self-pitying, and Ill get to that bit later but Im going to be self-indulgent and just highlight some of the highlights – as they say a ‘dump’ .  How cool am I ?

Take for example the Great North Run in  September 2023.  The downside of this run is that you are told to be in your ‘pen’ at the same time as everyone else regardless of your start time !  This means that you are standing around for almost 2 hours before the run.  The positive side is you can bore everyone around you all about your reason for running, how many runs you’ve already completed and in general your life history since you first went to Nursery school! My thanks to the two lovely people, (you know who you area although you probably don’t read this !)  who I was next to during these 2 hours who listened and nodded in all the right moments. My grateful thanks for putting up with my mutterings    They must have felt pity for me – looking at my ageing years and thought, “This guy is not going to last the full distance!”  One of them even told me afterwards that as she went zooming past me I didn’t say hello, as I thought it may  put you off !!

But I did finish and then encountered the biggest downpour Gateshead has ever seen !!  So heavy that trams stopped, busses stopped and the ferry stopped !  75,000 runners and probably an equal amount of spectators all trapped in Gateshead !

 

 

Took me longer in the queue for the ferry
than it did to run half a marathon – Will I do it again this year ????   Of course I will !  Running it for Rosemere Cancer Foundation where Laura had a lot of her treatment.

 

I have just realised that I think I will need to cut this blog up into Episodes.  As each of the runs Ive done have all had their own stories.

Next – the international traveler !!!! October 2023.  First up Palma, Majorca. I mean after the down pour in the North East I deserved some sunshine and a feeling that it’s too hot to run !

Right ?

Wrong !!

To say I was wet is putting it mildly – it hadn’t rained for a week; and then ‘it’ ie the Heavens, thought Mike’s running I’m going to wait till he’s almost here then I’m going to ******** **** down ! And it did just as I was being dropped off

but as the spaniards gingerly tiptoed through the puddles with their running shoes in their hands, coming from Lancashire I just waded straight through !! and got very wet feet !!

 

 

The run was good.  One white haired gentleman I was running past  or was he running past me – probably the latter said

“Do you realise that between you and me we have almost doubled  the average age of this marathon!”  And even in Spain I got pats on the back saying – great charity to run for – which I absolutely love –  just amazing.  It’s the main reason I started running just 3 years ago – to support the charities fighting cancer !

But towards the end it, ie the Heavens, decided enough sun lets **** it down  so much so that every single part of me, skin, vest, shorts, socks, shoes  and anything else I was wearing were saturated, including my mobile !

Number 1-  tip carry your mobile in something water proof if the weather is going to be inclement ! After the finish the Phone rang and I couldn’t answer it; everything was too wet – in the end I had to ask a boy standing next to me if I can use his finger – between you and me with my Spanish and his English I was a bit worried  – but he eventually got the gist and he slid the answer bar across and I could finally answer !!!  Phew ! But that was the last call on that mobile ! And we put it to sleep somewhere in the Mediterranean !

But not to be defeated – a week later if its Sunday it must be

The beauty of having friends in far-flung places is that you can go and stay with them when you are running half-marathons in far flung places.  Venice was no exception.  For anyone that has attempted to run in Italy, you need a special form to say you are fit to run !! I duly filled in the form and sent it off,  Checked on the website to make sure everything was ok.. In big red letters it said you haven’t uploaded your form so you can’t run !!   I duly uploaded my form again and checked.  Big red letters again ! NO form – no run.  Uploaded again – Website NESSUNA FORMA – NESSUNA ESECZIONE ; by now I had become fluent in Italian ! I then decided that I was going to go and if I couldn’t run well C’est La Vie ( multi lingual by now !) On arrival to collect the number , the very nice lady said, “oh you can fill that form in here no one has filled it in !”    Anyway the half-marathon was great except who knew there were so many bridges in Venice?  They even built a special one for the run ! as if there wasn’t enough !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I also claim the best photo bomb ever when there was a special service, the evening before,  in a cathedral for the runners.  The whole service was in Italian and I didn’t understand a word.    I thought it would be a good idea to go in my running vest; no one else seemed to be, so I thought ‘in for a penny ‘ and joined the priests on the steps – just had to be done !

This blog has been sitting on my laptop for quite a while now so I best publish it before the writing begins to fade – along with my memory    It’s an age thing !

Next episode: Running with a moustache, being ‘outed’ for being an old man, running with Lions, the beginnings of ‘fame!’  and then of course the biggy – London 2024