I have been involved with that charity too, so she is running for all of us. Great luck, Lucy!
Hopefully, she will finish; safely! Nowadays, cramps, sore knees, damaged heels or shin splints are the least of a marathon runner’s problems!
I have never had the courage to think of running marathons anywhere, much less to contemplate the actual finish. How does one prepare the mind, not only body, for such a tedious, tiring task?
Twenty six miles, three hundred and eighty five yards, is an extremely long distance to cover all at once, running!
Last week, folks in Boston could not even finish their race. Indeed, some spectators will never walk again, due to unbelievable idiots interrupting another prestigious road race – Boston Marathon – with so much mayhem and outright destruction, that the difficult aftermath still continues.
The entire facade was, and continues to be, desperately sad.
As a very tired looking US President Barack Obama suggested after the “Suspect No. 2” was apprehended; “It has been a very difficult week!”
That is an understatement, given the situation with that explosion in Texas that killed many, the prolonged gun restrictions debate in Congress, plus that situation in Boston.
But, great expectations, and making decisions and determinations, are the privilege, if that makes sense, of rank!
It is still seriously numbing to think that all that should have happened last Monday – April 15 – was that families, friends and associates should have been celebrating others finishing that race with hugs, perhaps a few well-deserved beers, only for some attendees to be maimed and killed!
What is it about sports that attract those types of almost unreal situations?
Even more ironically, three of the more serene sports – tennis, cricket and now, marathon road racing – have been the sporting examples that have been most upset and decimated by lunatics, fanatics or just jack-asses, relatively recently! What great shambles!
Oh, I know that other sports have had their problems too.
In 1970’s and 1980’s, whenever Manchester United played Liverpool, or the two Manchester teams, United and City met, or Chelsea played Arsenal, there were guarantees to be several serious fights, and injuries too, after games, courtesy of extremely energetic fans. It was chaos!
Always, though, the main question of these is simply that one word query: “Why?”
These days, any myriad of answers could be available!
When Monica Seles, 19 then, and world’s No. 1, in 1993, was stabbed in the back as she sat at her break in the Hamburg tournament, a preamble to the French Open that year, no-one understood why that had happened either, literally out of the blue.
It was proved afterwards that the culprit had hoped to eliminate Seles from the French Open, so that his so-called favorite, German Steffi Graf, would then win the French, thus regaining the No. 1 spot. As the saying goes, “with friends – and supporters – like that, no-one needs enemies!”
I remember writing even back then that sports like especially cricket, and a few others, can have similar violent events attracted to them, based on the fact that so much financing and player fees, and betting, were then coming into the sports.
In my mind, back then, all it probably would have taken was that some umpire would give an innocent but incorrect decision against a major batsman, allowing someone to lose great funds. Then, anything could happen after that!
Little did I know that, to my chagrin, I would be proved correct, even if the reasons for cricket’s most diabolical assault had nothing to do with money!
In 2009, the most reserved international cricket team, Sri Lanka, were attacked in Lahore, Pakistan as no other sports team, ever, had been attacked.
Yet, to answer that “why” question, that was not about money, but simply about fundamentalist and radicals trying to get their way.
When that attack had cleared, six policemen and a driver had been killed, while seven cricketers and a coach were injured, some severely so.
The one thing that President Obama suggested in his speech last Friday that resonated was that United States of America stood together, all 370 million of its inhabitants, despite this new attack on its very cohesiveness, even its own edict, that anyone can come to USA and be welcomed!
Sport is a great microcosm of that edict. The tens of thousands that started that Boston Marathon last Monday, or the similar throng competing today along the banks of the River Thames, have one thing in common – they are all one, competing, or simply running for fun!
Unfortunately, our world is so changed, irrevocably, that nothing that we can do could put that genie of dread back in the bottle.
We will all run again. All we can hope is that we do so safely, only for real enjoyment and for fun. Enjoy!
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i’m tired of the masses thinking this was a terrorist attack, shut the t.v, stop watching cnn, fox, msnbc and whatever major news network u look at….. locally respected The Boston Globe said there would be a controlled explosion exercise, so why the surprise now…. here’s a link to broaden ya’ll scope… http://enfordummies.com/wordpress/more-proof-evidence-boston-bombing-man-leg-blown-off-fake/?hubRefSrc=facebook#lf_comment=69937533 and that was an amputee actor, commonsense people!!! if u lose your legs like this, all blood drained within 3 mins u would be dead, cold as ice… Our grandparents need to come back on earth to slap stupid out of our heads… urrrrgggghhh
I always wanted to ask Croft, why did he sell us out and go play in Apartheid South Africa. Now maybe he will find the time to write an article and explain his actions. At least his reading public deserve that much.
Ask for me myself, I still vex with Croft for that!
Write again Colin. There is fun and peace of mind in reading your articles.
This is not very deep. Where’s Fazeer when we need him.:)
Check out line 32, you will get the answer!