The Walker With Heart

So that was the 2010s… a decade of running, running, gongs, running, fighting for services, losing friends and falling in love & getting married. Any retrospective of a decade focuses on the highlights and or the low lights, and skips over the middling murk of normal life that we live in most of the time. So, I’m not going there. Instead, I’m going to jump into my TARDIS to 2029 and look back at the 2020s… In 2029 I’ll be almost 60, I’ll still be running and will finally have got a t-shirt worthy number of parkruns done. I’ll still be moaning about my hip, my ankle and probably other bits of me. But I’ll still be plodding, often with Mrs Jiminy beside me, in costume (from the second decade of Marvel films), around courses and taking our annual pilgrimage to Newcastle and the Great North Run. Work will still be work, although I’ll note we are all complaining about the pay and car parking despite the fact that money was outlawed in 2025 and we all access work remotely by...

I'm overweight and over slow - work has been hell, and my buttocks are moulded into the shape required to sit in the cheap seats of a virgin pendalino... However, that doesn't matter cos this weekend I was racing the personification of Death himself (a him this time, not anything interesting from the fertile mind of Neil Gaiman). The Beat the Reaper is a run like few others, two laps of a mixed terrain course... muddy enough to demand some grip, tarmacy enough to demand some cushioning and with an array of death's little helpers popping out to scare the willies out of the unsuspecting runners... Mrs Jiminy and I dress for the occasion... The other feature is that the Reaper is real, a ringer in plain sight - he starts at the back and races the pack, chases down those who dare think they're fast enough - I don't I was happy only to be lapped by the front 15 or so. So, on to my race strategy - sounds odd, I was the last man how the hell could I have a...

This is our holiday week; other people’s children are back at school, its mid-season enough to be cheaper, mid-season enough that most places are still open, it’s mostly warm enough for Jiminy (Mrs Jiminy?), and mostly cool enough for me… For various reasons we’re both significantly under fit, so knew that our game plan for the week was common sense and plod… and plod we did, the Whitley Bay park run was beautiful with views to St Mary’s Lighthouse and the coast, then the perennial Great North Run… I’m not sure if it was my 18 th or 19 th but it’s an event, not a race (at least not where I am)… to give you an idea of the scale I was 1 ½ miles into my 13.1 as Sir Mo finished… it was hot, it was crowded, but the locals were as fab as ever; jelly babies & haribo, ice pops & water pistols, high fives & fist bumps – first or last it doesn’t matter- it’s a half marathon of fun and friendliness.  We also had a mad dash around to find the elusive Elmers… recommended f...

It’s been a while, the longest gap since I started this blog many years ago…  It’s been a while for many reasons, not least I’ve been a bit busy and injured – and as regular readers know (well knew, its been a while) I don’t blog well when I’m injured.  I’ll start with the busyness… the good busyness… Jiminy Cricket is now Mrs Jiminy Cricket, we got married in June, with a small select gang of our closest friends up in Scotland – she looked as radiant as ever, I looked hot… We followed this with a day of celebrations for more of our friends – we started with our local Parkrun, followed by a walking tour and then finished with a proper party and one hell of a cake.  We had friends from all of our worlds; some travelling for days to come and see us and join us in our happiness… THANK YOU ALL We planned the hell out of the wedding and the celebration day, and between Mrs Jiminy Cricket’s attention to detail and my Bridezilla m...