Photograph Quiz:
Photo no. 84:-Where is this pavilion? WHO is the bloke WHO is sixth from the left WHO won the Inter Counties Cross Country Championships and WHO ran in more than one International Cross Country Championship. One of Coventry’s finest, nay priceless, runners. Because you are so hopeless at these quizzes Blog, I will give you a clue … WHO wrote the rock opera named after him?
Dear Blog,
The National Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill Fields, London are on tomorrow, Saturday; are you going to watch Blog, or are you going to run and get your commemorative pin? I think the first senior National I ran was at Norwich. I was at the Pink Panther University at the time … and it was a long long way to Norwich. It was decided to do the journey in two stages on the way down South and East. So we set off on Friday night, stopped over in a guest house on the Friday evening in Doncaster, completing the trip on the Saturday morning. I cannot remember too much about the race or the weekend; if you are slightly interested, Blog, I will look it up for you. I do remember the leisurely breakfast and leaving about 10am to get to Norwich in good time for the senior race. We continued down the main A1 road from Doncaster. For some reason, after an three quarters of an hour or so, some bright sparked asked where Merlin was; he wasn’t on the coach!!! He shared a room with *** and he was still in bed when *** went down for breakfast. The penny didn’t take too long to drop, and we soon worked out that we must have left him at the guest house in Doncaster; we were university students, weren’t we??? We had left him at the guest house, believe it or not Blog. We had left him behind. We needed him for the team. We did not have the time to travel back for him. What to do? We needed him for the team. No mobile phones in those days Blog!! Problem. The phone number of the guest house was produced, so all we needed was a phone box. A phone box on the A1?? We did find a phone box near the main road. A phone box Blog, is like a mobile phone but about the size of a small cupboard, three sides of which are panes of glass, the whole contraption being painted pillar box red. A pillar box Blog, is a red painted cylinder with a hole near the top; they were planted at regular intervals at the road side. They were used to post letters in. A letter Blog, is an e-mail written on paper and sealed inside another piece of paper so no one else can read it until the seal is broken open. Now this may disgust you Blog, but remember it was a long time ago; to seal the piece of paper Blog, you had to lick it. Disgusting I know, but nevertheless true! So this phone box Blog, which is like a mobile phone about the size of a small cupboard, three sides of which are panes of glass, the whole contraption being painted pillar box red, is used for sending talking messages, but you have to go inside the box to talk the message and pay for the talking message by inserting quids into a slot. So we send this talking message back to Doncaster. The owner of the guest house kindly agreed to bring the missing Merlin to us on the A1, at the side of which our mini bus was parked up.
So what did we do while we waited? The A1 was the main arterial north / south highway in England, Blog. No hard shoulders in those days Blog. No central reservation in those days Blog. Not much traffic in those days Blog. What a brilliant idea …. the next 40 odd minutes was spent waving and applauding every third car that passed us while we stood at the side of the A1 which was the main North / South route. Blog, I kid you not. Well actually I might have told you a tinsey winsey white lie … it might have been every fourth car; come on Blog, it WAS a long time ago.
Marathon training tip:- if you get a sniffle these days, take a pill, go to bed for a couple of weeks and recover. Alternative remedy, tried and tested and used by countless runners years ago:- get a plastic dustbin bag, cut holes in same for head and arms. Wear next to skin, apply plenty of other running kit including hat and gloves. Go for a long slow run and S W E A T I T O U T!!! Come back, have a shower, go to bed. Get up next day as right as rain or as wright as reign. Blog, I am not joking.
Tuesday’s trudge was to cure a chesty cold. (cf above) It was very dark, no moon? It was very still and very black. To accommodate my chest, I went for a long slow trudge over the fields in the pitch dark. I’ve said to you before that going for a relaxed trudge can subconsciously solve problems or produce new ideas, haven’t I Blog?? Well ………..a poem was coming together in my mind; the dark, the quiet, the stillness all mixing with the trickling sweat, so a another poem by Colin …………. my reverie was suddenly disturbed by a dog wearing a head torch. Blog I kid you not. A dog wearing a head torch. Barking mad if you ask me? Well back to this poem; Coleridge may have been distracted by a Royal Mail delivery postman, but the dog did not have the same effect on me; I remembered my poem. Having suffered at the hands of Billy Boy while at school, having to learn a sonnet or two by him by heart, I thought I would compose a sonnet in his style. So Blog, here it is in true fourteen lined iambic pentominoes. You have SILENCE by Colin.
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Even if I say it myself, I think those last two lines are quite brilliant, don’t you Blog?? They took a bit of recalling after I was startled by the dog, I must admit, but there was no way was I going to do a Kubla.
See you on the hill above the swimming baths tomorrow Blog.
Colin
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