See what I did there? Karin smiles or Karin's miles. I like to think I do a lot of the first one a while clocking up the second, my running partners may think differently... Filed under: running
Bill offered to buddy me on the last miles of the Glasgow-Edinburgh double marathon. He was willing to join me anywhere from Linlithgow onwards which would have been a 20 mile run but I coped up until Broxburn, where I was really glad of his company. I had checked with the organiser that it was OK and he replied that it was though “no piggybacks” 🙂
Now, Bill’s not the most active conversationalist when we’re running, in truth he rarely gets a word in when he’s running with me, so he hasn’t had a lot of practice at talking as a distraction. He made a brave effort though and told a couple of jokes one of which goes a bit like this :
“George was going up to bed when he heard noises coming from his garage so he phoned the police and said that he thought there were intruders in his garage. The police asked if they were in his house and when he said ‘No’, they said there were no patrols available at the moment but someone would come along later.
A little while later he phoned back and said “these guys that broke into my garage are now trying to steal my car”. Again the police asked if anyone was in danger and said there were no patrols available but that he should give them the registration so they could track down the car if they managed to steal it.
A few minures later he phoned back again and that they needn’t worry about the intruders because he had just shot them. Within a couple of minutes several police cars, blue lights flashing, screeched to a halt outside his house to find the intruders alive and well, still engaged in hot-wiring his car.
One of the policemen said to George: “I thought you said that you’d shot them!”
George said, “I thought you said there was nobody available!”
Now it’s not a very funny joke, but that doesn’t really matter, it was exactly the kind of distraction I needed (and it must have been distracting because I can remember it).
He did make a couple of attempts to ask questions but I’m afraid this is one situation where only closed questions will do. He asked “How was the Falkirk tunnel then?” …. …. …. “…crap…”, then he tried “so what’s happening at Cargo later?” …. …. …. “crap”. Now that’s not even an intelligible answer to the second question (though it’s an accurate, if concise, answer to the first), but I was largely down to “Yes”, “No” or just a grunt and I had to summon up enough energy for one of those. He got the idea pretty quickly though and didn’t ask any more questions. I read an article recently on mental tips for ultras, and one of them was a tip for supporters
“BEWARE – of asking too many questions. A question is a request for information from someone’s head, when that head feels tired and battered a question can feel like someone delving their hand into their brain and pulling things out. You wouldn’t want that done to you would you?”
Mostly he told me I was doing really well, distorted the truth somewhat when I asked the time and just was good company when I needed it. He was there to reassure me that the sudden change in surface at Hermiston was just tarmac (I almost stopped dead because I couldn’t understand why the path suddenly looked different; the tarmac is less than a fortnight old). He was there to remove the prickly branches I managed to get tangled in, when bending down would have taken a supreme effort. He went in front of me over both the Linn’s Mill and Slateford aqueducts so that I only had to watch his heels rather than see the drop down to the river (I don’t like high bridges and there are monsters below them in the dark).
It’s a thankless task being a last gasp buddy but I really did appreciate his company and I hope I managed to show it in my own way. Though I think I twice asked him to tuck in on my shoulder rather than run slightly in front where the path was narrow, I don’t think I mentioned the loud pounding of his feet once, even though it was particularly pronounced with his new GTS 9s. 🙂
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Karinsmiles 
See – people other than your sisters read this. You should be so proud of yourself. People were asking how you got on today – everyone was really chuffed to hear you had finished it. Looking forward to hearing all the details tomorrow on our 9 mile after work run 🙂 x
Comment by Lynne March 8, 2010 @ 6:42 pmYou’ve done fantastic, now I’ve got something to brag about at work. I like this vicarious living it really takes such little effort. WELL DONE YOU…..2 down…..the world’s your ultra x
Comment by It's your other sister March 7, 2010 @ 9:59 pm