I damaged my meniscus
I’ve buggered up my knee
Running’s loss my readers’ gain
It’s back to poetry.
No great loss to literature
And less so to the track
They won’t want me as laureate
But now at least I’m back.
I can barely walk just now
The verse is equally lame
Must be something I can do
It’s such a dreadful shame.
Describe a man who has positively impacted your life.
“To believe this story you must believe that the human race be one joyous family, working together, laughing together, achieving the impossible. Last Sunday, in one of the most trouble-stricken cities in the world, 11,532 men and women from 40 countries in the world, assisted by over a million black, white and yellow people, laughed, cheered and suffered during the greatest folk festival the world has seen.” Chris Brasher’s article in the Observer 1979 after completing the New York Marathon the first and at the time the only mass marathon of its kind.
Brasher came to prominence
With the four minute mile
Pacing Roger Bannister
Who brought it home in style.
But was through the Marathon
He really influenced me
Opening up the distance
To ordinary blokes like me.
It was once a race for athletes
Late in their career
We mere mortals wouldn’t run
We’d just be there to cheer.
Brasher ran and was inspired
By that race in New York.
He brought it back to London
And this transformed our sport.
It was nineteen eighty one
They ran it the first time
When Beardsley and Simmonson
Joined hands on the line.
I watched it from the sofa
Recovering from bad knees
Still in slow recovery
With physiotherapy.
But I determined then and there
It was something I would do
And completed my first London
In nineteen eighty two.
Then began the running boom
The whole thing just took off
Suddenly the running thing
Accessible to us.
It became a lifestyle
A big thing in my life.
I ran London five times more
And hoped to bust three hours.
Of course I never made it
Three fifteen my best
But running makes me feel good
It helps to swell my chest.
The race grew exponentially
It really is huge now
And of course the charities
All benefit as well.
So raise a glass to Brasher
A man who influenced me
And opened up the marathon
To all us ordinary.
What are your favourite physical activities or exercises?
It always got to be running
How ever often you ask
It doesn’t seem so very long
Since you asked us last.
I’m still an old man running
It’s what I like to do
Though I’m an age when people ask
Are you running still?
Yes I am still running
It makes me feel alive
You stay home with your aches and pains
I’m off up the road.
I’m still running because I can
I can because I do
I’ll still be running while I can
If that’s ok with you?
Use it or lose it’s my motto
And I’ve not lost it yet.
See no reason for stopping
I’m only seventy two.
What could you do less of?
A thing I could do less of
Is catching wretched colds!
Dreadful sneezing, all bunged up
Or worse a runny nose.
You can’t do what you want to
You’re miserable as hell
And everyone will hate you
Case they get one as well!
I’ve taken all my vitamin D
A substitute for sun
Wrap up well when I go out
And make sure that I’m warm.
As for other vitamins
I’m stuffed with fruit and veg
You can’t say as we grow the stuff
That we don’t eat enough.
Whisper it quite quietly
But perhaps I do too much.
It seems I don’t get injuries
But coughs and colds and such.
Forgetting that I’m 70 plus
I push myself too hard
I fail to get the balance right
And end up off the track.
Thankful for the vaccines
COVID and the flu
I only get a sniffy nose
Never anything worse.
What is your favourite form of physical exercise?
Of course I’ll say it’s running
Because I always do
You ask the same old questions
So what else can I do?
You’ll sometimes find me in a gym
But that’s not really me.
I like to swap the same four walls
For changing scenery.
When younger I played team sports
And football was my dream
But others choose when you can play
You have to make the team.
It’s my decision when I run
I just step out the door
I can do it anywhere
It’s what my legs are for.
It’s totally consuming
If you love our sport
Determines how you eat and sleep
Is always in your thoughts.
I know I’m getting older
I’m certainly slowing down
But I enjoyed it as a kid
And won’t stop now I’m grown.
It makes me feel alive again
I kid myself I’m young
There is no finer feeling
Than when you are on song.
What’s something most people don’t know about you?
I’ve run the race a few times
Of course I’ve never won!
But strangely first to cross the line
Is something I can claim.
The race I want to tell you of
Was nineteen ninety three
Eamon Martin won it
So he’s famouser than me.
I didn’t run the race that year
Was only helping out.
They started twenty five thousand
So needed lots of help.
We were finish marshalls
Stationed on the bridge.
In the days before the chip
Complicated stuff.
The runners all had bar codes
The ‘pluckers’ would strip off.
Put a hand upon a chest
And gently rip it off.
Then there’d be the ‘spindlers‘
Who put them on big spools
Then they’d be collected
And matched up with the watch.
So the pluckers and the spindlers
Had their different jobs
But we were ‘separators’
What would be our task?
We took them through the funnels
We’d each take through a batch
Get them to the pluckers
Who’d rip the bar codes off.
We’d hand over our batch card
And then go running back
‘Well done, well done,keep moving’
Was what we’d always shout.
A complicated business
We had to get it right
So of course we’d practice
Which is where I made my mark.
Before the race was started
We had a quick run through
So all the separators
jogged towards the line.
I was first to get there
So hand on heart can say
That year’s London Marathon.
I was first across the line.
What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?
The hardest goal I set myself
I never did achieve
A marathon in sub 3 hours
Was at one time my aim.
I took it very seriously
Would follow six month plans
Build my weekly mileage up
To sixty miles a week.
I’d study all the training plans
For stamina and speed
Watching what I had to eat
And getting proper sleep.
I had a few attempts at it
And mostly did OK
But 3.15 the best for me
And sadly that won’t do.
I gave up running marathons
When I couldn’t beat four hours
I have gentler running aims
Now I’m seventy two.
I still like to push myself
But have more modest aims
I still aim for 8 minute miles
But now for just 5k.
What is your favourite hobby or pastime?
Running is my hobby
I think I’ve said before!
Repetitive these daily prompts
They’re making me a bore!
What is left that I can say
Bout what I love to do.
I’m less quick than I used to be
But still can so I do.
It gets me out in the fresh air
It gives me thinking time.
Helps me know I’m still alive
Still fit at seventy two.
Others of a similar age
Recount their aches and pains.
I’m much happier up and out
I’ll run while I still can.
I try to be competitive
With others of my age
First one over 70
Is usually my aim.
I get out several days a week
Run 5 or else 10k
Not my former mileage
But I run along ok.
Once a week I’m with a club
For intervals and such
Saturdays is ParkRun
Enjoy those runs a lot.
I’ve given up on marathons
They’d take me far too long.
I’m happy doing shorter runs
10k’s plenty now.
When I am not running
I think of it a lot
My wife got me a t shirt
That shows you what she thinks.
What are you doing this evening?
You asked me what I’m doing
This is what I’d planned
So much else is happening
It might just all go wrong.
You’ll know I like
To do my page
Using verse and rhyme
But today for various reasons
That’s not what will be done.
So the plan is:
Tuesday Training
Intervals: 8 x 4 mins
19:10-20:30
Workout
8 x 4 mins (2 mins rest)
Total Time: 32 mins
Pace: 10 seconds / mile quicker than 5k pace
Route: Springfield Road
Coach: David Ross
What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?
I will not surrender
Or pander to my age.
Staying fit and active
the focus of my days.
Running’s my obsession
It gets me out of bed.
I wake with training sessions
running through my head.
I’m slower than I once was
Our muscles go with age
But try to be competitive
With others of my age.
I have a training programme
Do intervals for speed
With lots of slower easy runs
For that endurance base.
I don’t do faddy diets
But balance what I eat
We grow a ton of fruit and veg
So that is what I eat.
I try to get a good night’s sleep
And have recovery days
Training breaks our muscles down
A good rest builds them up.
The secret of a good old age
Is not to give things up.
Tell yourself you can’t do much
And lo and behold
You won’t!
Andrew Green's Poems 