marathon

The Stare. Chapter 2

russellsays

2002; I left University after one year, I wasn’t happy with my course, or the running group at Loughborough. I went home to London and got a job as a Teaching Assistant in a Primary School. A perfect job for me, at 21 years old. Short hours and long holidays, so I had plenty of time to focus on training.

Invicta School was small, only 300 kids, in inner-city London. A lovely Victorian building, hemmed in by menacing social housing estates, towering up on all sides. The area was under-privileged, with many poor families, not enough space, no green areas, and certainly no gardens. Drugs and crime were rife in the estates, with concrete mazes straight out of Blade Runner. I would walk around discarded needles on the way to school…

 10k

London Loadup – Week 5. National Cross Country

russellsays

I do not want to run the National Cross Country champs this year. I don’t want to do the 3 and a half hour drive. I don’t want to run around in the mud. I’m tired. I’d rather stay here with my family. But the problem of being an athlete/ coach, is you have to lead by example. I wouldn’t be very happy if one of my athletes said they didn’t do a race that had been in their schedule for months, because they couldn’t be bothered.

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The Best of 2019

russellsays

If you look at my race results for 2019, it has been a disaster. No legit Personal Bests anywhere, two atrocious road marathons, 2 failures to make the GB team, and even a few DNFs (Did Not Finish) next to my name.

Thankfully, the results aren’t what I remember. Well, of course I remember them, but they are not as important to me as all the adventures I’ve had. It has been an incredible year for adventuring, both in running, in life, and in running life. Silly.