Laser-pink focus
From Josh Kerr to Elle St Pierre, Dave Procter to Deo Kato, there's a lot of inspiration around this week. Especially since I'm back running again
It felt great to be back out running through the mud with my mates again this week, after all those weeks of not running, of stopping after a few hundred metres and having to hobble back home; and then, as things improved, running, but tentatively, with my full focus fixed on my left heel: Is it hurting? How much? Would you say three out of 10? Four out of 10?
It’s still not quite right, but I can sometimes now forget about it on a run. I can chat, I can splash through mud - and there’s a lot of that around where I live at the moment - and I’m very happy about that. Running 2,000 miles around Ireland, though, will need it to be a lot less glitchy, so the Feldenkrais sessions go on. My family are getting used to hearing Jae Gruenke’s voice in the house. “When you’ve satisfied your curiosity, rest a moment.” When my kids walk in to the sitting room to find me in some odd position on the floor, with Jae’s voice coming out of my phone, they just raise their eyebrows and leave me to it. “He’s doing his exercises again.”
In the pink
This past weekend it was the World Indoor Championships. As a distance running fan, mainly, these aren’t usually the most exciting champs, since the longest race is the 3,000m and many of the best runners aren’t there. But since it was in Glasgow, the BBC had full wall-to-wall coverage, so I found myself dipping in and out and, as always when I watch athletics championships, there were moments where I found myself choking back a little tear. Josh Kerr, for example, powering his way to gold in the 3,000m in front of his home crowd was wonderful to watch.
Josh took a bit of a risk this last year in trash talking the great Jakob Ingebrigtsen after beating him in last summer’s world outdoor championships. In most people’s eyes, Josh maybe got it right on the night, but Jakob, who barely lost a race all season, was clearly the better athlete. The Norwegian is also very cocky/confident, and so he took the bait and he has risen, on multiple occasions, to Josh’s barbs - recently retorting after Josh broke the two-mile indoor world record that he, Jakob, would have won that race blindfolded.
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