I Used To Do a Little But The Little Wouldn’t Do It, So The Little Got More and More

Yes, I’m quoting  ‘Mr Brownstone’ by Guns N’ Roses. No, I’m not talking about taking heroin (You’ll all be glad to hear). I just couldn’t think of a better way to describe my addiction to running.

A little over 3 years ago I decided to give running a try. Being 5′ 5″ and a smidge, weighing in around the 16st mark, there was a sense of trepidation about running the streets of Aberdeen. I finally decided to lace up the trainers and head out and, quite literally, pound the pavement. I didn’t go very far, I didn’t go very fast but it was a start.

I never set out to with any specific goals in mind, just run a few times a week to help me lose some weight. Then, the little got more and more. I got up to 5k, then 10k. As Axl says “I just keep trying to get better, just a little better than before”.

So two years after it all began I found myself on the start line at the Edinburgh half marathon. It’s fair to say I was bricking it, I’d spent the last two years running on my own and I now found myself in a pen with a few hundred other people ready to run from the city centre out to musselburgh. Having been struggling with shin splints through out training, forcing me to do very little in the two weeks leading up to the race, I just hoped my legs would behave and carry me round the circuit. Not only did they behave, they excelled and carryed me round in 1 hour 55 minutes.

So why did I do a half marathon as my first race? Well, a friend wanted to run the New York Marathon for her 40th and asked who wanted to run with her. Edinburgh was an attempt to see if I had what it took to train for such an event. Six months after standing in my starting pen on Regent Road in Edinburgh, I was standing on Staten Island facing a 26.2 mile adventure through the five bourghs to Central Park.

I thought I’d trained right, got my fueling strategy right and got myself mentally prepared for it. What I didn’t consider was how long a day it would be, up at 4am for breakfast, head to the shuttle bus at 5am, queue for the bus for an hour, a 2 hour bus journey, queue to get into the start compound. Ater all that I still had a 3 hour wait till I had to be in position to start. I was at a different start point to my companions so those 3 hours were spent on my lonesome!

Finally my start time rolled around and as I lined up in the final holding pen, in the last time slot, Axl screamed through my headphone “Do you know where you are? You’re in the jungle baby, you gonna die”. I seriously hoped that this wasn’t an omen of things to come.

The start was amazing, running over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in to Brooklyn and seeing the Manhatten skyline against clear blue skys was something that will live long in the mind. My memory of the whole experience is quite hazy, especially the 2nd half of the race. Maybe my mind was trying to block out the pain and just focus on getting me to the finish line. 4 hours 43 minutes 49 seconds after setting off from Staten Island, I crossed the finish line in Central Park. Elated, exhausted and emotional the job was done. The ice cold pint of Brooklyn Lager that followed was probably one of the best pints I’d ever drank!

I haven’t writen this as a look for a pat on the back, its more of a ‘If I can do this then anyone can’ piece. As George McFly once said “If you put your mind to it, you can acomplish anything” and with a bit off effort and shear determination then a truer word has never been spoken.

So, lace up those trainers, put those headphones in, press play on Appitite for Destruction, start moving those legs and when the little won’t do it, make the little get more and more, keep trying to get better, just a little better than before.

One Year Down, Five To Go….

20 something years ago there were the nerves in opening the envelope for my higher exam results, the format may have changed but the nerves were still there as I read the email and logged into my account. It’s official, I’ve passed the first module at Open University on my journey towards a BSc in sports, fitness and coaching.

I’ve been lucky enough to work through the downturn in the Oil & Gas industry but nothing lasts forever, I didn’t want to wait until I was out of work to start thinking of a plan B.

Having been involved in rugby, first as a player and now as a coach, I wondered if I could do anything that would help supplement my coaching. There wasn’t anything that peaked my interest locally which lead me to the Open University. I’d flirted with the idea in the past, and after gentle nudge from my better half, I made the leap into distance learning.

With having to allocate approximately 18 hours a week to studying its something you can fall behind with very quickly and staying on top of it is a must. So, rather than my usual wing it and see what happens approach, I’ve had to plan out and allocate time to carry out the course work and assessments.

I get that the first couple of years at OU are introductory but I’m pretty chuffed with how I’ve gotten on this year. Having not written in an academic style for some years, I found it quite challenging to adapt at first, going from writing matter of fact style reports at work to writing essays,  paraphrasing and referencing source materials. I felt I improved steadily as the year went on, becoming more comfortable with the course work as I became more at ease with what was in front of me.

Is it a challenge? Yes it is. Has my writing improved? Hopefully! Has it been rewarding? Absolutely. No matter where this takes me there will alway be one certainty, nothing will stop the nerves on results day!

 

 

I’m Scottish and I supported the Lions!

There, I said it.

I know quite a few Scots that didn’t have much interest or threw their support behind the All Blacks. Well, each to his own but I will always back the lions regardless of how many Scots are in the team.

There has been a lot said over the past few months about the lack of Scots in the Lions squad and there not being one player in the test team. All this following Scotland’s best six nations campaign in a long time.

No doubt there were a few close calls in selection and different people argued different cases for each player. At the end of the day, Scottish players were judged on the away defeat to England followed by Glasgow’s champions cup defeat to Saracens.

Apart from the unfortunate Stuart Hogg is there any other Scottish player that would have made the 23? A fit WP Nel may have snuck on to the bench but long term injury put paid to that.

“But Scotland had a great six nations beating Ireland and Wales” I hear you cry. That they did but one good season didn’t do enough to influence selection. Maybe, if Scotland had performed in a similar style, discounting the England performance, over two or three seasons then stronger cases could have been put forward.

With a lack of players on the lions tour it gave Scotland a deserved victory over Australia. Would this win have come if a few more players had been in New Zealand instead of Australia? The defeat to Fiji shows we maybe lack the depth to miss key players at the moment. With a best ever tournament finish for the U-20 side the lack of depth may be taken care of if the players can kick on to the next level.

I do feel sorry for Finn Russell getting labeled as part of the ‘Geography Six’ as he couldn’t have been far away from being called up in the first place. I know George Ford had a blinder against Argentina but it’s not like Finn had a shocker against Italy and Australia is it??

The coming season is key for Scottish rugby. Can Gregor build on the good work from the summer? How will Dave Rennie and Richard Corkerill settle at Glasgow and Edinburgh? Scotland will get their own chance at the back to back world champions in November, so when we win that one it will be a big two fingers up to Gatland and Co!!!

Joking aside, if Scottish rugby can continue on its current trajectory then I believe there will be more Scots on the plane in 2021. South Africa, here we come!