Telly Excellence

Two items this week:

(1) Comrade Alan's venture back to Newport for the Summer Handicap. This was always going to be a big ask, with rickety knees and a general lack of fitness, but sometimes you have to take advantage of a glorious Summer's evening sunset as, well you just don't get many of those, do you?

The course was as tough as ever. I think it's quite tough. Run up from the Wheatsheaf Pub, turn up the drive to Lilleshall Hall, turn off along Pitchcroft Lane before taking in a loop of fields near Sheriffhales, whcih brings you back onto Pitchcroft Lane, then there is another loop out towards the A518 before picking up the old Church Aston lane back to the old A41 & the Wheatsheaf. Anyhow, the old legs kept going quite well but there was never much under the bonnet and I was always scared the jabbing pain in the leg would return. Not so. Whoopee! It was a painfully slow time but there was a fair bit of water about. It would seem that Sheriffhales now has it's own Lake District. I couldn't catch many other runners, I suffered the indignity of being asked if I was last (I wasn't) but I didn't mind really. A useful step on the long road back. (2) It's the run up to the Olympics (are we going to get prosecuted for using the name?) and so the telly is positively bristling with sporting programmes. I've seen the excellent Michael Johnson presenting one on his theory that Black slave descendants have made the quickest runners due to evolution. Good theory but the programme was I thought a little stodgy and could have been wrapped up in half an hour. The BBC's series Stronger Higher Faster has been excellent and from a running perspective the shows on the 100m and the 1500m were a real treat of archive running. My favourite this week though has been 'Born to Run' about the Kenyan running boom and looked at just what the secret might be. Turns out it's a combination of living at altitude, really hard work, a need to succeed to get away from poverty and some inspirational coaching from Brother Colm O'Connell.