Tag: running

Running, 2022: Beyond form

Written on December 31, 2022. Posted in Journal. 2 Comments on Running, 2022: Beyond form

It’s hard to define precisely what makes good running form. Like neat handwriting, you just know it when you see it. At its best, running form is balanced, free-flowing and controlled, like cursive. The posture is upright, steadied by core-strength. Most diagnostically, there is an aura of calm. Fact is: some of us run picturesque. And fact is: I am not one of them. I attend to my running form as much as someone escaping a house fire. The general style suggests panic, exhaustion and...

Armagh-eddon: racing the fastest 5k in the world

Written on August 12, 2020. Posted in Journal.

How is it that races guarded by qualifying times dare you to race? A small hit of pride, perhaps, that’s all it takes, and I’m signing up to run a measly 5k in Armagh, which is in Northern Ireland, in case you don’t have googlemaps to hand. But if you’re looking for excuses not to bother – and very soon, I am – this race in particular has more than usual for the dubious. It falls midweek. I live in London, so it’s the other side of a whole sea. It’s going to cost money to get there....

An Accidental Run to Smalley Green

Written on October 19, 2016. Posted in Journal. 1 Comment on An Accidental Run to Smalley Green

It began with an empty space. I noticed it take form in my diary, a run of blank pages, cleaned of life. The weeks leading up to and after this time were messy, every page scribbled with reminders and events, presentations, shifts in A&E, drinks with mates. But as time passed, nothing encroached on this odd little clearing in the forest, and sometimes, I wondered if was all down to me. Perhaps some instinct, something subconscious, was meticulously making space. Perhaps this was the...