|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
Ed is not a racer, he just likes to get out there and enjoy the countryside. If you want to hear about great racing exploits look at Phil's blog. If you want to read about the joy of running at a more leisurely pace, you are in the right place.
If you want to comment on the blog please email by clicking Ed. If they are legal and decent I will publish your comments good or bad.  Sign up for our free newsletter! PANTS Men's Archive Heroes T7 Track Pants Designed for heroes: The Heroes T7 track pants from the PUMA Archive. Trendy design for every day. Casual fit, cool style. The pants to give you that old-school style. What a load of tosh. If they really are for heroes then there is a very limited market for them. Also how can you be 'trendy' and 'old school'? Trendy means 'in accordance with current social fashions' old-school means the opposite. Also if it is current, i.e. trendy why is it from the PUMA Archive? PUMA Usain Bolt Men's Long Running Tights: Running tights from the PUMA Usain Bolt collection. Professional running performance for when you're training! Recycled polyester – extremely eco-friendly. Gold reflective element: Make sure you're seen in the dark. U.S.P. Moisture Management – so sweat doesn’t stand a chance. Athletic cut. Optimum aerodynamics and speed. Flat seams and anatomically-placed mesh inserts for extra comfort. Zip at the ankle for optimum ventilation. Gold Usain Bolt Sign-Off logo and PUMA Cat logo. The hype appears to have got a little out of hand here 'optimum aerodynamics and speed' - it comes in an XXL size for goodness' sake, that's hardly going to be aerodynamic. 'U.S.P. Moisture Management - so sweat doesn't stand a chance' U.S.P isn't explained anywhere so is as good as meaningless. As the tights are made from the same material as a pair of Ron Hill tracksters I should imagine sweat has as much of a chance as it does in a pair of those. 'Recycled polyester - extremely eco-friendly' is an extremely dubious statement. Recycling a toxic product like synthetic polyester will often result in more toxins being released into the air or water. There are recycled polyesters that have better environmental credentials than others, but none of them can have better credentials than organic material used in an environmentally sensitive way.
Emotions This year’s Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon (KAEM) was characterised by emotions; highs and lows. As always the event was friendly with a great family atmosphere. This was demonstrated very clearly at the award ceremony when both the winner and the person who finished in last place received the same enthusiastic applause. But it was the emotions I will remember the most. There was great sadness at the passing of JJ who had been a member of the support crew for many years. He could not come to the event this year due to the ravaging effects of cancer. He died on day two of the event and I shed a few tears when I heard the news. After the event we stood around a tree planted in his memory, drank a brandy & coke, his favourite drink, then poured some of our drink on the ground at the base of the tree. This was a good way to remember a great, fun-loving man. There was joy from meeting old friends and making new ones. From enjoying the stunning scenery of the Kalahari, swimming in the Orange River, lazing in the shade and swapping stories. Meeting one old friend again was very emotional. Phil Waudby, who I first met during KAEM 2007, had run from Johannesburg to Augrabies before competing in the event. I was good to see him again and great that he had completed the run from Johannesburg. He looked strong and I knew that he would complete KAEM to finish his 1188 kilometre fundraising run. Sadly Alison, his wife and a key member of his support team, died a few months before the event so there was also sadness. It all became too much for Phil at the award ceremony and I hugged him and held him close as he cried his heart out. Later that evening I held Carmon close as we danced to the song Lady in Red. Carmon is a nurse who has worked on the medical team at KAEM and ADDO and we had become good friends. A few days earlier it had been Nadia, one of the race organisers and a dear friend, who had held me close when I was near to the end of day 6, exhausted and overcome by my own emotions. I cried for a while, and then we both ran to the finish line hand-in-hand. KAEM 2011 a complete jumble of emotions and somewhere in there was the despair of feeling exhausted and knowing you have to go another 10 kilometres in the searing heat, mostly through sand, before you can find some shade and rest and the joy of crossing the finish line and tasting that first beer. 11th September 2011 It's not always about me; the 100km Winschoten. Knowing your weaknesses and overcoming them. The story starts early in the year when I received a telephone call from John Owen. John and I used to be trustees of the charity One World Action, quite a few years ago. We have kept in touch ever since by the occasional telephone call and have only physically met on about two occasions in the last five years. John had telephoned because he was running the Duchy marathon and thought it would be convenient to meet up and have a beer afterwards. John had assumed I would be running it as it is my local marathon. I prefer the Cornish marathon and tend to give the Duchy a miss, but I agreed to enter. After the marathon I found out that the reason John wanted to meet was not entirely altruistic. He wanted some help; the previous year he had enter the 100km race in Winschoten had been overcome with self-doubt and never made it to the Netherlands, let alone the start line. His plan for 2011 was to get me to enter and then he would not want to let me down and have to turn up. The plan worked. John's training did not go well and he found it hard training for the distance; he is not an endurance runner and he is 67. However, all our telephone conversations were about meeting up in Winschoten and being on the start line together so John could not back out. The big day came and we both started. I pulled out after 30k with a knee problem and, I think, with the thought 'well my job is done, I got John to the start line'. John did not have an easy race and had a really bad patch in the middle, but worked his way through it. The last lap was sheer hell for him, but he ground it out. His reward; he is now the over 65 World Masters 100k Champion. My reward; seeing him on the podium with a big smile on his face while the National Anthem played. I had goose bumps. Well done John, you knew your weakness and put in place a strategy to overcome it. 4th September 2011 Unconscious incompetence, conscious competence and excellence at sport. Please do keep reading, it does have a relevance to running. I might go on a bit but I do get there eventually. - actually that's just like my running. A little while ago I read an article that said that people that had a good night's sleep were more able to make associations between apparently unrelated items. I must have had a fantastic night's sleep because I managed to make an association between, Ed & Phil appearing in Waterstones, Newcastle, a driver sitting in the middle lane of the M5 then, at the last minute, swerving into the exit slip road forcing me to brake very sharply, a member of the British Bobsleigh team and W H Smiths in Bude. The link between these items is the "conscious competence" learning model which relates to the psychological states involved in the process of progressing from incompetence to competence in a skill. Simply put the model has four stages.
No those of you still reading will be saying what's all this got to do with running and how do Waterstones and Bobsleigh fit in. Well here it comes. I was going to be in Waterstones with Phillip talking about running and posted on Facebook about it. Katherine Hay-Heddle said she was paint-balling that day but would try on pop in. I said to her that she had done loads of stuff and knew more about running than I did. She replied 'I am sure I will learn something'. Katherine was making sure that she didn't slip from Unconscious Competence to Incompetence. Someone else doing that was Dave Smith whom is part of the GB Bobsleigh Team. He is a very interesting person and a nice guy. You would not believe how complex the 'push' phase of a Bobsleigh run is. To be selected and do well in competition you have to be right at the top of your game. Dave knows himself well, knows how his training is going, knows what physical condition he is in and therefore knows what position he should be in the 4-man bob. In short you want the guy with huge explosive force at number 2 and the guy with high top-end speed last man in; so number 4. Dave is so focused he concentrates like crazy; he is never going to drift into Unconscious Incompetence. He is so hungry to be in the team that he always knows what he has to do to be properly trained for his position. I think a lot of runners, and particularly ultra runners, have practiced so much it has become 'second nature' and are in danger of drifting into Unconscious Incompetence. Not a good thing if you are passing your experience on to others. For those of you that really want to know or perhaps who have insomnia; sleep brings about changes in cholinergic and noradrenergic neuromodultion. 15th August 2011. Community, running, riots and delis. I was thinking about the riots the other day and the loss of communities when I realised that running had played a small part in starting to heal the wounds in our damaged society. My business, Ed & Phil, which I run in partnership with fellow runner and blogger Phillip Howells, decided to get involved with the UK Backward Running Championships in Manchester. One of the brands we represent, Toetoe®, provided prizes for the category winners and we decided to organise a prize for the best fundraiser in the fun run. The official charity was Forever Manchester which funds community projects in the Manchester area. Manchester was one of the cities affected by the recent riots. When thinking about a suitable prize I remembered that my friend Andy Murray (the ultra-runner not the tennis player - both are Scottish) recently offered a prize of a Delimann food hamper when he was fundraising. Delimann are based near me across the border in Devon (I live in Cornwall) and seemed a nice bunch so I phoned them up and they offered a great deal on one of their hampers. The hamper gave a great boost to the charity and was a very welcome prize for their biggest fundraiser. So by working together we all achieved something. Ed & Phil and Delimann got some great publicity, the UK Backward Running Championships got some prizes to give away, the charity got a boost and some small community projects in Manchester will get some much needed funding. None of this would have happened without a willingness to help, Delimann were keen to get involved, Ed & Phil wanted to do something positive and get some publicity as did the other organisations involved. TEAM work really does mean Together Everyone Achieves More. 31st July 2011 Success is a mixture of taking risks, being patient, getting help and sometimes giving someone a kick up the backside. Please read on to see if you can provide any help - I don't need a kick up the backside (at least not yet). Several years ago someone contacted me and asked for my help making her dream a reality. She wanted to organise a race in Transylvania. I did not know her very well, I had met her when crewing on the Marathon of Britain and kept in touch with her very infrequently, but for some reason I said 'yes I would be delighted to help'. We arranged to meet a few weeks later at Budapest airport so that she could drive us from there to deepest Transylvania. When I travel I like to know my exact itinerary and that all my accommodation is booked and confirmed. The arrangements for this trip were 'Text me when you arrive in Budapest'. That was it; the only arrangements for a ten day trip. We had a fantastic trip and most things worked out ok, although we had to sleep in the car a couple of times. The area where she wanted to organise the race was stunning; we did a lot of running, a lot of talking and a lot of travelling then drove back from Transylvania to the UK, pretty much non-stop with only a few hours snatched sleep in the car every so often. When you spend that much time with someone when you are tired, hot, uncomfortable and lacking sleep you soon find out if you like each other. We did, and a plan was made to organise a multi-day race in Transylvania in 2010. Unfortunately, life can sometimes be a little bit fickle; in my friends own words. "Having fallen onto troubled times the plan, despite the great enthusiasm to see it happen, was parked for a while until all that could happen happened". But last weekend I felt I had been patient enough and it was time to deliver a kick up the backside. The plan is now firmly back on track with a new date of 2013. The event, to be known as the TT250, will be over 5 days and cover 250 kilometres across several mountain ranges in Transylvania finishing in Dracula's castle. Runners will have to be self-sufficient during the race, with only water being provided at checkpoints and tents at the end of each stage. Runners' food and other essentials will be transported between camps so they only have to carry what they need during the run. If you think it sounds like fun and want to get involved the please email me. 5th July 2011 Running – a powerful mind altering drug.
I had expected taking up running to change my body and, perhaps, to give me steely resolve and the ability to tough things out. It was a pleasant surprise to find it relaxed me and was a great de-stressor.
I never thought that it would totally change my personality. I took science A-levels, and then took professional exams to become a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (fine body of men). Logic, analysis, rational decision making and a balanced point of view were the characteristics of my life.
Yes there were some slushy bits, but they were restricted to things like meeting my wife and seeing my children born. But now running is making me go all artistic.
Recently I met, quite by accident, an artist and became fascinated by her work. She says “The colour and smell of the paint, the sounds of the charcoal on board or paper, the feel of clay on my hands, music and silence, all these are triggers and every mark is a decision.” – Rosemary Goodenough. What a complete load of tosh I would have said, but tonight on my run I knew what she meant.
On my run I went barefoot and could feel the texture of the road under my feet, enjoy the warmth of the tarmac were it had been in the sun and contrast it with the cool where it had been in shade. My feet made a gentle pattering noise and my step was light, I was in tune with my environment. Then suddenly the prick of a small sharp piece of gravel would interrupt my peace and I would be very aware of my feet before eventually reaching a smooth patch of tarmac and returning to peace again.
Rosemary also says “As an artist I am viscerally aware of the absolute straight line connection between me and the artists who made their marks with such verve on the walls of the Chauvet Caves approximately 35,000 years ago. We don’t know their names or motivations but the drive and passion to make marks is a primitive and inescapable human need and this straight line connection between artists across millenia will never be broken. For me, being part of a link in this past and future chain is fundamental to my life as artist.” What a complete load of drivel the old me would have said.
Tonight as I ran barefoot I was connected to my ancestors who ran freely across the plains of Africa. 11th June 2011 - Running - a journey of discovery My running life has been a constant journey of discovery, although the type of journey and the nature of the discoveries have changed over time.
When I first started out on the road to fitness and a running life it was all about physical discoveries. Learning that I could get fit, experiencing what it was like to grow stronger day by day, witnessing my body change and then achieve things I never even dreamed possible.
Later, when I started to run ultra marathons, it was a journey into the realms of the mental and metaphysical. At times I had to look deep inside myself and summon up the desire and the courage to keep going. During these long races my thoughts turned to contemplation of things metaphysical.
Now my running, which is mainly off-road, brings me into close contact with nature and often throws up deeply rewarding experiences; for example seeing, badgers or herds of deer or even running with giraffes when I was in South Africa.
I have also met some great people, both dead and alive, which have enriched my life. Running on the coastal path one day I stopped at Duncan’s Hut for a rest and to take advantage of the water that is always available there for travellers. In the corner of the hut was a box with copies of Ronald Duncan’s books and a note saying please help your self. Fortunately I was training for the Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon www.extrememarathons.com and was carrying a rucksack half-filled with rocks so there was room for some books.
The Tale of Tails and other stories is a delightful collection of fables written for children between the age of 10 and 100 and I enjoyed it tremendously. How could you not enjoy a tale that starts “one day, a wild daffodil and a crimson rose went hand-in-hand to an old wisteria tree”? The Uninvited Guest is a more serious collection that examines the human condition. I was fascinated by it. I am now determined to find his other collections and read those.
As well as improving my literary experiences running has helped with my artistic appreciation. The other day I was in Bury St Edmunds (home of Greene King IPA one of my favourite beers) and had entered a running shop just behind a lady customer. She was not a runner, but a sculptor who wanted some cushioned trainers to stop her feet aching when she stood up all day working. We fell into conversation about her work and she gave me her card.
Her website www.rosemarygoodenough.co.uk has details of the techniques she uses and pictures of her work which range from oil paintings and charcoal drawings to sculptures. The oils and sculptures are out of my reach, being priced in thousands of pounds, however the Photovagrants® are affordable and I will buy one.
Photovagrants® are works that she metamorphoses from her oil paintings into vagrant images by manipulating their colours. Rosemary invented the term Photovagrants® because she felt that during the work on the colour process they had wandered from their birth place, but maintained their integral relationship with the original oil and had not collapsed into a remote delinquency. I just love that description.
Running is a simple activity, but if you carry it out with open eyes, an open mind and a good measure of inquisitiveness it can be so much more than just pounding out the miles. 31st May 2011 - Being a beginner again (I cannot believe how long it is since I last posted) I started running in 1994, entered my first race in 1995, my first marathon in 1996, my first Comrades marathon (56 miles) in 1999 and my first multi-day race in 2003. I have run 88 races of marathon distance or more and raced on the road, off-road, on the track, in the desert in the arctic and all places in between so I considered myself to be an experienced runner. However, I now find myself to be a beginner again. I have taken up backward running and need to build up gradually to develop the muscles it uses, practice the technique, get used to looking over my shoulder. I have the aerobic fitness, but have to take care to avoid injury. I am also experimenting with barefoot running; this is not easy when you are 95 kilos (15 stone in old money). Again I am taking it slowly to avoid lacerating my feet or breaking the bones. I am very much enjoying being a beginner again and feeling my body adapt and improve. I feel refreshed and re-invigorated by trying something new. My experience has given me the edge as I now know that these things cannot be rushed and that slowly building a good base is the best way to achieve long lasting good results. I am hoping that both new disciplines will have developed sufficiently to allow me to run barefoot in the UK Backward Running Championships in August. What an achievement that will be. 29th March 2011 The importance of a warm-up and of proper rest. I had a very tight calf, don't know why, perhaps it was too much driving, so I decided to be sensible and not run for a few days. Unfortunately I ran upstairs to fetch something and did some damage to the calf. (Note to self, take time to warm up before dashing upstairs to fetch something.) I took a few more days off running which was very frustrating and started back too soon. The calf was still sore and I obviously adjusted my gait to protect it because after the run my back was very painful. The following morning I could hardly get out of bed, but after a while the back eased. Once again I dashed upstairs to get something, the back seized up and I also hurt my hip. (Note to self, move to a bungalow.) So now I am not running at all this week and just hope I will be alright for the 12 hour race at Crawley this weekend. I tried to be sensible, but it just goes to show that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. You may think I am being a little over dramatic describing a week off running and hobbling around like Quasimodo as hell, but I am not. Having all that spare time meant I could read the papers and what was the first article about, getting old that's what. Apparently men start to feel old at 58 (I'm 56) so that was not good news. There was a glimmer of hope as the article went on to mention that women feel old at 29, so I started to think about the fact that in the next 2 years I should start chasing after women in their twenties. Then I remembered the state of my back, I am definitely in hell. Please, please, please let me get back to the heaven of running again. 24th March 2011 A new view of "What does not destroy me, makes me stronger". For a few years I had the Friedrich Nietzsche quote as my email signature. I had always thought of it as, take on something tough, overcome it and become stronger, then take on harder stuff overcome that and become even stronger. However the Hardmoors 55, a 55-mile race over the North Yorkshire moors made me look at it in a different light. To explain I will need to go into a bit of a preamble so please bear with me. I suffer from peripheral neuropathy, a condition that causes pain in my hands and feet and a gradual loss of feeling. It is a progressive disease; apparently my immune system attacks my nervous system. Because the pain originates in the nerves normal pain killers, such as ibuprofen, do not work. I was prescribed Amitriptyline which helped with the pain but made me feel like a zombie and affected my running because it interferes with the energy systems. The other drugs often prescribed are even worse. I stopped taking the medication, but could not handle the pain so turned to alternative medicine and found that Bowen therapy provide some relief. After each treatment I feel pretty whacked, but I soon recover and have a few weeks reasonably pain free. Now to the Hardmoors 55. This was a few days after my treatment and when I got to about 10 miles I realised it was too close to the treatment I was very, very tired. There was no way I was going to finish the event. I thought about my options and decided not to tough it out to see how far I could get, but to decide there and then to drop out and have a pleasant jog in the sunshine to a convenient place to retire and get a lift to the finish. So I had a lovely jog/walk for 13 miles chatting to people on the way. I went to the pub afterwards and had a few beers, had a shower, listened to the rugby on the radio, had another beer and waited for Phillip to finish. (see his blog). The following evening I was in Newcastle and went for a run along the Tyne. I ran well; fast and relaxed. The following morning I ran again with zest. Monday evening we did not finish work until late in the evening, had an early start the following day and I did not get home until the early hours of Wednesday, so there was no run on Tuesday. However a few hours after going to bed early Wednesday morning I was up and went for a 40 minute run. I could not believe that I was running relaxed and fast, in fact I was a few seconds off my personal best for that run. I had not let Hardmoors destroy me, I had been sensible and evaluated my circumstances and options. I decided not to take on the big challenge, which would have destroyed me, but to ease up and have a relaxed time so that I could come back stronger. "What does not destroy me, makes me stronger". Is not about being macho and defeating things to become stronger, but dealing with challenges in the most appropriate way to grow stonger. 14th March 2011 A few good lessons learnt at the Duchy Marathon I have run the Duchy Marathon a few times and never really enjoyed it, but this year it was different; I had a great day out yesterday. I only entered because a friend I had not seen for a few years telephoned to say he was running it and it would be a good chance to meet up. The weather on race day was perfect; sunny, but not too hot, which certainly helped to make the race enjoyable. Perhaps in previous years, even though there were sometimes when the weather was good, other factors were at play to make it less than fun. It just goes to show it is worth testing to see if your opinions are still valid - things change, we change. A good lesson learnt. The other lesson was that we all need help with motivation from time to time. My friend had planned to run a 100k race last year, but in his words 'chickened out'. He is planning to run it this year and suggested to me that if I planned to do it as well he wouldn't chicken out as he would not want to let me down. I thought about it overnight and decided yes I would do it; not for any altruistic reason, but because it would help my motivation. I know I need to lose weight and do more speed work to get faster, but don't do it because I can easily jog around most of the races I enter. The 100k has a strict time limit so I will need to lose that weight and gain speed. I wouldn't want to let myself or friend down by not finishing. So the 100k in September it is then. Actually I learnt a third lesson, running can be bad for your arms. I was concerned about an injury to my calf and I think I must have been running slightly differently from normal and this affected my arm action because the muscles in my right upper arm ache like mad today. 9th March 2011 It's a wonderful, wonderful life. (frozen wastelands to searing deserts all in one day) The first few days of this week have really brought home to me the delights of the wonderful world of running. I normally run off-road and shun the city streets. However on Monday I ran in Exeter, around the canal basin and the quay, with Pete Ferlie of Ironbridge Runner. The sun was shinning, everything looked very pretty and I enjoyed it. It was a contrast to my normal runs on the coastal path. That evening I was reading the latest edition of Trail Runner (great magazine) and an article headlined "Get Mud Confidence" brought memories of the Marathon des Sables flooding back. No I did not do it the year the first day was flooded out; what prompted the memories was this sentence in the article " Learn to recognise the characteristics of firmer ground". In the Sahara I soon learnt to recognise the characteristics of firmer sand. If there was a crust and you did not sink in it made running (mostly walking actually) a lot easier. This skill has come in useful since during the Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon. What fantastic memories I have of that event. It was a particularly lazy start to the week as I also caught up with reading the Saturday Telegraph. There was a supplement about the Yukon and a piece about the Sourtoe Cocktail Club, of which I am a member. This opened up a rich store of memories; the 6633ultra, frostbite, great friends, incredible cold, the Northern Lights, the Dempster Highway, ice road truckers and of course the Sourtoe Cocktail. Where else, except for the wonderful world of running, could you get so much from a little run and a few articles? March 2011 - In praise of pertex. (Worn partly because of the weather conditions and partly because I have just been given a lovely orange EDZ Allclimate Ultrashell top) Today's run was a circular loop of just over two hours, going out on the cliff tops and back along the lanes with broken cloud and east wind. No these were not two Native American companions, they were the weather conditions. As it was a cold day it meant I would get very cold in the wind on the cliff tops when there was cloud cover and quite warm along the sheltered lanes when the sun was shining. This was not the sort of run for a cotton race t-shirt, this was the time for some technical stuff. Bring on the EDZ Allclimate 90 gram Ultrashell jacket, an ultra lightweight windproof shell.  It was just what was needed, something to keep the wind out on the exposed sections without cooking me when it was sheltered and a little warmer. It also made me look good, the nice high viz orange top with black trim went well with my black tracksters and black gloves (EDZ merino liner gloves - brilliant, more about them another time). Looking the part made me feel good and I ran well. I knew that the technical qualities of the jacket would be just right for the conditions because I have the previous model in black. The new model does have a couple of improvements; the back is longer so there is no gap between the top of your legging and the jacket, even when you bend over and the zip is a little longer which helps with temperature regulation.So to sum up - technical qualities as expected, the surprise was that the stylish cut and colour made me run better. If there are any Native Americans in North Cornwall, especially if your name is Broken Cloud, do get in touch so we can go for a run. EXZ Performance Layering 27th February 2011 - In praise of the humble cotton race shirt. They can improve your performance. If you read any gear reviews about running tops they will all criticise cotton t-shirts and extol the virtues of technical tops. Technical tops are great on long runs and when things go wrong in adverse weather conditions you will be grateful for technical gear. However, there is still a place for the humble cotton t-shirt, which are often given away free at races rather than costing you an arm and a leg like the technical tops do. Also running is not a sterile emotionless technical affair; it involves feelings and experiences, highs and lows, the rough and the smooth, adversity and triumph and lots, lots more. Race t-shirts have all that. I choose what I wear for what it does and for what it means. Today I was doing a faster and shorter run than normal on a Sunday (needed to be back to watch rugby) and knew I would be able to maintain the same pace throughout, so getting cold towards the end was not an issue. A cotton shirt would be ideal, but which one? It was a little chilly so a long sleeve would be good. That narrowed the choice down, but there was still a wide choice. On top of the pile were, the Bury 20, the Broadclyst Bimble and my eventual choice, the Morpeth to Newcastle Centenary Road Race 2004. That shirt held some great memories. A whole group of ultrarunners travelled to this event and we had a great weekend. I ran well that day and enjoyed the banter on the bus back to the start. The shirt proudly boasts "The oldest road race in the world" but that cannot be true as I ran the centenary Boston marathon a few years before that. Now that was an awesome race, again with some great memories of the marathon and my trip to Boston. I ran well today, I ran better than well, it was awesome. I was very strong, even up the hills, and my feet lightly kissed the ground. Not something you experience often when you weigh 15st (95kg). My cotton t-shirt did that, or the memories associated with it did. |
 |
 |
|
| Site Map |