You want a Legacy?

Right you lot – you’ve had your fun. The Olympics facilitated your gorging on evening and weekend TV, generated your boss’s good-natured tolerance of streaming events during work hours, and provided endless hours of gasps and cheers and tears and triumph. And now it’s your turn to contribute.

I hear a lot of people asking – nay demanding – to know what LOCOG intend to do about London 2012’s Legacy. These people say it with a capital ‘L’ to emphasise that this Legacy is Very Important to them. And LOCOG do their best to explain what they will do with their facilities and venues, how they will make sporting equipment and expertise available, and put their athletes in front of cameras heavily laden with medals and white-toothed grins. Meanwhile Mr Cameron does his best to insist that money will go in large volumes to the right places and that selling-off sports pitches isn’t a thing that’s happening at all. They are pleading with you to believe in their vision of Legacy and their capacity to deliver it.

I put it to you, however, that this Legacy is your responsibility as much as Coe’s and Cameron’s. You have been inspired by sport because it turned up in your living room for a fortnight. Now you have to go out and find it. If you want sport to be a part of your life or your children’s lives, then do something to make it so – Jess Ennis isn’t going to pop round with a set of hurdles and a javelin to teach you the heptathlon. Greg Rutherford isn’t going to suddenly leap into your garden with his coach’s whistle and a measuring tape. You are going to need to build on your own momentum. Here are a few suggestions as to how you can do that:

Go and see some sport

If you missed out on getting tickets for the Olympics, then why not go and see something else? Professional and high-level amateur sport happens every week in this country - your options really aren't limited to Wimbledon and endless football matches. I’m going to the EMC tests at Murrayfield in November, which were cheap. I’m planning to finally get to the Edinburgh International Cross-Country in January, which is free. If I was desperate to see Olympic mainstays like athletics/track & field, there are endless events up and down the country, including massive inter-county championships – here’s a list. Every Olympic sport will have public, usually quite cheap events that you can go to and have an awesome time at. What's stopping you?

Ambitious.

Sign up for a race

I say this all the time – but if you want running motivation then put some money where your mouth is and sign up for a race. Incidentally, you could do Survival of the Fittest for Venture Trust, which would be cool. Or why not run an event that your local running/athletics club is putting on? If you usually run the big, famous races, why not try something unusual and local? Or if you’re short of pennies then go to parkrun – it’s FREE, there’s one near where you live and I’ve told you to do it already.

Get behind the Commonwealth Games

Glasgow 2014, baby. Here we come.

Join a club

This is hypocritical – I haven’t been in a sports club since University – but you may find that joining your local athletics, football, rugby, cycling, hockey, triathlon, shooting, swimming, canoeing or any-other club will give you much easier routes to participation and a new social circle to boot.

Take up something new

One of the most bizarre and wonderful parts of the Olympics for me is watching athletes compete at the highest level in events which I was only dimly aware of. This should be the moment that Britain recruits a generation of talented handballers, finds swathes of future BMX champs and hundreds of people passionate about that weird 8-man kayak thing. I hate to think of the number of people who didn’t shine at the mainstream sports which were offered at school, who became labelled (and therefore learnt to think of themselves) as ‘not sporty’.  I saw a great tweet by Jeremy Vine that said “Facts that have emerged from the Olympics: Britain’s not rubbish. Football is not the only sport. The Queen can do jokes.” – why not dedicate yourself to a minority event? You might be naturally gifted at it. And, by contrast and in a ‘just saying’ kind-of way, Britain is pretty rubbish at football.

Jog on

I think I may have said this somewhere before. But I mean this in its broadest possible sense - leave the car at home and walk into town, buy a bike and use it to commute, go for a swim, hike up a reasonably big hill. Do literally anything to keep moving and active and energised. 

You want a legacy? Make it happen. The time is now.

Happy running

Dave

2012 to date: miles run - 282, miles biked - 69.2, metres swum - 2350, races - 3

Quite the weekend

So I’ve had rather an exciting few days since I signed off the LIVE blogpost on Sunday morning.  I ran the Alloa Half Marathon, during which I took nine phonecalls, broke two PBs, accrued three vicious blisters and lost my breakfast (twice). If you haven’t read the wonderful and bizarre tapestry of information that came out of the LIVE event then I urge you to go and read it now. 

Also, go back to this blogpost and read the comments, as one LIVE update was mistakenly posted there (it’s a cracker, too).

The start line, unaware of the horror to come.

The finish line, ecstatic that it's over!

I don’t think I need to add much more on my Alloa experience. I had a very, very difficult race – my shoulder was aching from a golfing injury, I was wearing too many layers and I set off at a -literally- blistering pace which for some reason, I hung on to. My digestion was all wrong and ended in disaster.  I started the race wearing gloves that I had to ditch after 3 miles.  The first two miles were dispensed in 6:43 and 6:44, which is just absurd. The pace only slowed a little until I hit the hill of ultimate death 11 miles into the race. I don’t know what came over me.

But I PB’d for the 10k in 43:34, taking a hefty 2:07 off my previous mark, then went on to smash my half marathon PB by 2:19, recording an official time of 1:34:44. I would have finished at least a minute quicker if it hadn’t been for the stomach upset. I have to be clear though: this was the hardest I’ve ever run, the most effort I’ve ever put in to a race. This half marathon ruined me - I am blistered, sore and broken. Walking is still quite uncomfortable. Those two PBs came at a hefty price, which I’m not sure I will be willing to pay again. Though running a fast time has its advantages: within two hours of the gun firing I had finished the race, showered, changed and made it back to the car to head off into the distance. The last runner still had almost an hour left to go as Linds (head cheerleader, crew-chief, chauffeur) and I left town, heading for St Andrews for the afternoon.

The LIVE concept was fun and I’m proud of the finished product  - even though I played a relatively small part in it!  I’d like to apologise to those who tried to call but couldn’t get through, and even more so to those who did get through and were rewarded only with wheezing, grumpiness and general malaise.  Everyone who posted an update is awesome, you all win an official I run because... t-shirt (or, you would, if they existed).  To those who had suggested that taking calls on the run would slow me down, I say – you should have been right, but I’m glad you weren’t. I might do another LIVE event, but no promises...

Then, my weekend got better. On Sunday afternoon, on a windy, beautiful beach in the East Neuk of Fife that we both know all too well, I asked my girlfriend and long-suffering crew chief to marry me.  I am still beaming at the fact that she said yes. I would like to write a hundred thousand things about that moment and the four and a half years before it, but this isn’t the time or the place. Suffice to say, I have something in my life more important than running.

Happy everything

Dave

2011 to date - miles: 275.65, parkruns: 3, races: 2, miles biked: 12.85

Why does this keep happening!?

I think I am getting a reputation. As you know, on Saturday, this happened:

I said yes

This happens to me quite often, here are some recent examples:

I said yes

I said yes

I didn't say anything

There are the people who imply that I'm in some way culpable for their running...

I said probably

Then there are a few who, for some reason, don't like me constantly harping on about running, by 'liking' nonsense like this:

I said sorry

Then, yesterday, this happened:

I said yes.

Happy running.

Dave

2011 to date - miles: 221.07, parkruns: 3, races: 1