As several of you are probably aware there’s two races within this two-loop course around Kingston and Hampton Court, an eight miler and a 16 miler. I’d had a crack at the shorter distance a couple of years ago and completed it in a pretty respectable 58.04 but with the Ironman fast approaching I thought I’d give the longer one a go and try and put some miles in the ol’ bank as they say.
I’m not a natural runner; my legs are too short and, having only taken it up when I was 40, I was over-the-hill before I even started. I truly hated every step for several years. It was initially a necessary evil as the adventure races I was competing in were ‘topped and tailed’ a run but I have to admit that it did eventually click and it’s proved to be exercise that I’ve grown to quite enjoy.
The game of squash, according to the indisputable Oxford Companion to Sports and Games (1976), originated in the mid-19th century at Harrow School, where boys would knock a squishy rubber ball about whilst waiting to play the ‘proper’ game of rackets. Rackets – similar to squash, though played with a rock-hard ball on a slightly larger court – is now only played in public schools and private clubs, Squash, meanwhile, is played worldwide. The popularity of the sport derives largely from one unlikely group of families: the Khans, from Pakistan.
I have to admit that the whole competitive triathlon bug has yet to really sink its teeth into me. In my (admittedly) limited experience of a couple of Sprint and Olympic distance events, two Half Ironman events and one full Ironman I’ve found it all a little too testosterone fuelled and if ever there was a case of ‘all the gear, no idea’ then triathlon is where it’s at.
For as long as it’s been a competitive sport, it appears cycling has been in the doping-doldrums. Back in the early days of the Tour de France, it was the odd bottle of booze, liberated from the local village bar, that the intrepid and uber-hardy cyclists necked before staggering up the indomitable Alpe d’Huez or Le Tourmalet. Cocaine, ether, LSD and amphetamines quickly followed, only to be usurped by the drug choice of today’s cyclists, EPO, steroids, growth hormone, and the scientifically named, GW1516 (an illegally manufactured drug known to cause cancer), not to mention the use of self-administered blood bulking and ‘ozone-treated’ blood transfusions. And contrary to the protestations of many within the industry, professional cyclists are still allegedly […]
£5.1 bn. Five-point-one-billion-pounds. Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly become more disillusioned with professional football I read of a retired manager’s pay-check and it almost made my blood boil. Last week it was inadvertently revealed that Alex Ferguson, MUFC’s recently retired ‘ex’, had been paid in excess of two-million quid for a contract of employment that stipulates the grand sum of twenty days’ employment from him in return. The judicious use of a Texas Instrument’s finest tells me this equates to an immoral daily rate of £108,000. If you’re a fan of Saturday morning’s ‘Fighting Talk’ you’ll know what I mean when I say that I’d love to hear Sir Alex ‘defend the indefensible’ on this one! In a […]
When I read of the plight of over one hundred highly-paid and internationally known footballers, I almost felt sorry for them. Almost. Apparently, the footballers, including recently retired Premiership League players, are experiencing severe financial difficulty, with many facing potential bankruptcy following recent HMRC demands for the repayment of huge disputed tax relief. Players who earned (or were at least paid) million-pound-plus salaries now face losing everything. The footballers have become very visible targets in a well-overdue crackdown by her majesty’s finest on what it believes is blatant tax avoidance via a variety of schemes which sought to take huge advantage of tax reliefs aimed at British film industry investments. Personally, I think the line between ‘avoidance’ and ‘evasion’ is […]
I don’t like the look of Ched Evans. Even if he wasn’t a rapist I think his arrogant swagger and misplaced self-confidence would still wind me up in the wrong manner. But, get this, Ched Evans can be rehabilitated and can even ply his trade in the morally dubious field of today’s football world, but only if Ched Evans wants to be rehabilitated. Sadly, it appears he doesn’t want to be. To my, admittedly limited, legal mind, Ched’s ‘innocent’ argument is not based upon the fact he wasn’t there, or that it was someone else perhaps impersonating him, or even that he didn’t have penetrative sex with the victim. No, his argument is that his rape was consensual. That, after […]
This may come as a surprise to many but I’ve always been a bit of a darts’ fan. I can immediately recall the tungsten & feather champions of my youth – the cool, calm & collected John Lowe, the brash & ever-cocky ‘crafty cockney’ Eric Bristow, and the cartoon character ‘Jocky at the oche’ who’d turn up to tournaments with his own range of optics and self-named vodka! Back in the day of our first tele there was nothing more we loved than to huddle round the grainy picture of ‘Indoor League’s compere Fred ‘si thee’ Trueman, as he introduced, pint in hand and fag in mouth, big guys with tattoos (and bigger gals with tattoos) to compete in darts, […]
I can’t believe I’ve just declined a couple of free tickets for tomorrow’s European Cup qualifier between England and San Marino. It even involved a box and unlimited hospitality. What was I thinking? Well, I can’t help thinking football is no longer the beautiful game and ‘working-class theatre’ that I was brought up on, and every week something happens to confirm this belief – this week’s was Wenger and Mourinhio’s unnecessary and child-like playground spat. On a slightly bigger scale though was FIFA’s decision to kick its own internal report on corruption, into the long-grass. The hugely powerful and wealthy organisation is no more than the personal fiefdom of the corrupt Sepp Blatter, whose elections are notorious for bungs, bribes […]