Wednesday 25 June 2008

This Boy

Posted by speedygeoff on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 with
BBQ Stakes today: cold and windy but sunny.
me 25:21
Roger 26:08
Helen 27:45

Strewth tagged me:
How would you describe your running ten years ago?
I wouldn’t. Oh yes, ten years ago, I remember it well. I couldn’t run at all between May and September 1998, and as a new M50 I put on 18 kg in weight in that short time, going up from 58 kg to 76 kg. I have not fully recovered from that set-back. I’m so glad you asked!

What is your best and worst run/race experience?
Best would be winning the Canberra Marathon in 1978 in a new ACT open record. Although close would come winning the combined schools mile in 1965 for Adelaide Boys High School in front of the whole school and all the colleges at Adelaide Oval.

The worst I can think of – and I don’t keep a record of some things - might be when I interrupted a family holiday in Streaky Bay (South Australia near Ceduna) so that I could travel to Brisbane for a National Cross Country race because NSW had picked me as a reserve, only to finish dead last on a miserable waterlogged course. I did run other National Cross Country races with average results, but never that terrible.

Why do you Run?
I am still not dead therefore I run. I run because I love the freedom of running. When I was seven years old I spent most of 1955 in bed. Six months of not even being allowed to get out of bed is frustrating and taught me patience and determination at the same time. And being sick again two years and again twelve years later with the same illness, reinforced in me this determination to be an overcomer. I run because I was so close to dying back then, and because I treat every day as a new day to be celebrated, every day as a bonus, because of those experiences. And debilitating illness is not somewhere I want to go to again for a while. I run therefore I am (still not dead).

What is the best or worst piece of advice you've been given about running?
Best advice I have been given: Percy Cerutty once said to me: “Soar like an Eagle”! Up until now I know how to coast like a goose; I am counting on forty more years to get to an Eagle’s heights. What a motivator!

Worst advice: Over thirty years ago, maybe thirty-five, Canberra coach Darryl Cross said to me: “Why are you still running? Why don’t you give it away?” Ha ha ha! As if! What? A motivator?

Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know!
Anything? Um, ABOUT me? I’ve probably said already that I won a state wide mathematics competition in 1965. This is the same year I was the SA combined schools one mile champion. So what haven’t I said? I think I have said everything, directly or indirectly. OK, some obscure trivia. At High School and University I was a movie fan, and went to see Taylor & Burton’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” at the movies, on five separate occasions, I liked it so much. Clink, clink.

Now I tag 5 friends: I choose the speedygeese who read this and don't have blogs of their own. If that's you, please, please, email me now with the answers! Hopefully at least five will.

Thanks Strewth