Every time I need some stoke on running I read stories about guys like Joss Naylor Joss Naylor - Wikipedia
He’s a sheep farmer who used to get up at like 4am to pull a shift on the farm then jog a half marathon across the mountain to the start line for a mega race, win it, jog a half marathon back home again, then finish off sorting out the sheep. Machine!
A bit like me then, up at 6.30, breakfast, morning at the coalface of Teams calls, perhaps designing some stuff, tossing about on the internet, 5K run at lunchtime then more of the same. I’ll probably refuse the MBE, though.
Beat my 5K PB at lunchtime today, though. Well happy, I had thought that I might never do that again.
Running is the only physical pursuit that I was ever genuinely good at. I can’t do it anymore as I’ve now got a big hole in the cartilage in one of my knees (the long term after effect of a bike accident). I didn’t start running properly until I was 30. I only had 8 years before my body fell apart. I did loads of 10k races and 9 marathons.
Been to watch, but never participated in, the Dovedale dash events a few times in me yoot.
Hilarious watching folk losing their shoes in the boggy mess at almost the very start.
That was my annus mirabilis in 2007. I did it in Zurich and it was the biggest high I’ve ever felt. I was seriously tripping my balls off after.
That time qualified me to run the London Marathon as an elite in 2008. I trained all winter and spring and then got a stress fracture the day after my last long run before the race. After that healed I did a 32 min 10k but I never felt right again.
I’m gutted I had to stop but I’m always stoked to hear people getting into it.
Another nice thing about running is how much of a leveller it is. I’ve only tried two marathons but both times I crawled round in 5 hours and got comfortably passed loads of times by people 20 years older who were also fatter and wearing tatty old gear. It’s like going to the local park and some guy in his mid 50’s nonchalantly throws down a Argos complete then does a Kalis tre flip over a bin on it. People in their 80’s do marathons.
Also really helps keep asthma in check.