Paddington at Work Interior decorators available. Specialist contractors for pain caves, difficult domiciles, or just awkward situations. The colour palette can be a soul sucking black, pale, anaemic, bland yellow or a kaleidoscope of exotic colours so vivid, so varied that to try to pcik just one affords for confusion, discord and unpleasantness. It's easy to take for granted that just because you get to the start line, the finish is possible. Strength, conditioning, mob

The Adventures of Paddington Indifferent. That was my description of today. Some bits I felt I could almost run, others I had to walk, some were a struggle to even raise a jog. It started off so well. no aches, no pains and felt comfy to run. Stu and I were 'bimbling' away, chatting inanely and the yards and miles rolled by all the way to Hawkshead. It was nice to chat to someone, other than myself, who I cannot seem to get a coherent conversation from, and not notice th

Paddington Marches On It's hazy, although some details crystal clear, the emotions, raw and unfiltered. Another nightmare. I'm in a house, I'm downstairs, with a child, not sure who's child but a young person, maybe 5 or 6 years old. The kettle is on, we're at the kitchen table, warm sunlight is streaming in but it doesn't feel like the afternoon. The click of the kettle, the muffled tick of a clock, light chirps of birds, but then a shocked, short shriek and a very defini

Paddington At Large Duncan can I squeeze by you, one of the students asked at dinner. Johnny looks up from his dinner, suddenly remembering something and said something along the lines of 'I took a lass out to dinner the other week, I asked her if I could push her stool in?' Lets see how dinner goes first.' Star Wars Day today, 'D0 or do not, there is no try.' From the very off today, something did not feel right and I was in my own head from the start. Eight years ago I

Paddington Abroad Have to say I wish I was on holiday in France at the moment. The quads were 'crying out' for help this morning and the doubts about finishing today resurfaced. You sort of need a plan a, b, c and maybe even d for this event. In my opinion you can only look as far as the day you're on, there's a lot can happen over the course of a marathon. Quite a long time ago, I was lucky enough to work with Steve Winch, he was hard working, funny and the team loved him

Paddington Helps Out This morning I sat up in bed with a puzzled expression on my face. Happenings at Brathay, particularly breakfast always followed a strict timetable and it was most unusual for me to awaken so early and before the alarm even went off. Dashing down several flights of stone steps, the now well established, almost regimented second day pre-race preparation included the consumption of crumpets, porridge, coffee, orange juice and now marmalade. Taking no care

More About Paddington It was quiet in the physio room this morning, and a little subdued in the 10in10 meeting room. Perhaps people had things to worry about? Maybe it was the ominous shadow? Routine becomes established quite quickly, breakfast, treatment, briefing, run, treatment, prep fuel and hydration for the next day, dinner, blog, sleep, rinse and repeat. Personal admin they call it in the services, it's where we have to organise our electrolyte bottles and food we t

A Bear Called Paddington Abandoned, alone and scared. A little aging loner, low on energy, short on strength, limited in training and terribly, terribly worried about embarrassing himself. Excuses at the ready, not enough training, tweaked hamstring, a pulled achilles. What is blatantly clear is that out of the few Brathay 10in10s I've done, this is the most terrified I've been. Just like Paddington I feel alone, scared and looking for a 'family' to own, or rather want me

Deliberate, definite, focussed. Except I'm not. For years I've tried to work out how to be more consistent, more on the level, less fluctuating in my efforts. It's still not something I've worked out, not for the lack of trying. Happy times, when I felt like I was part of something special, static moments of grateful existence, family holidays, special places of work (when everyone is with you), special efforts and rewards and, the Brathay 10in10. Looking back, each of tho

Happy Belated 50th Birthday! What an event? I genuinely don't know whether to place an exclamation or question mark at the end of that sentence. What an unusual atmosphere, at least that's how I felt. It wasn't just the run but also the beginning and afters too. Admittedly I was a little out of sorts having followed my usual inimitable style of preparation for the event. This consisted of booking, on Monday (the week of the event), the overnight ferry to travel that Friday

Or 'Different Endings' What the hell am I doing? I thoroughly enjoy my new career and working for myself but what on earth am I putting myself out for? The idea was that I'd create the balance I never really had in hospitality (or is that looking back through tainted, murky glasses), for family, for work, for exercising and raising money for charity and maybe the occasional blog. What seems to be the case is waking up at daft o'clock to do lessons or work late to prepare s

Someone once said, that if you stop challenging yourself you stop growing? Who knows? Two years ago, enticed by the advertising as the 'World's Toughest Mountain Race', I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring. I deferred last year as it was giving me sleepless nights. Like a year is going to make any difference? I've had more than a few sleepless nights. Anxiety levels have been through the roof. For the last 12 months, there's been a genuine fear that I simply couldn

What's that phrase, poor preparation leads to p.p. performance? I know myself too well. Earlier in the week, I'd cleared my diary so I...

Doesn't everybody have an Aunty Dot or at the very least know an Aunty Dot? I bet she got invited to the wedding? Most month's on waking...

Many years ago, when running became a ‘thing’ for me, I decided to try and raise funds for Brathay Trust through (in part) writing this...

Three days to go. Three sleeps. 72 hours. Over a year to wait. Over a year to train. Except for the fact that I sort of didn’t, haven’t,...

Searching for human acknowledgement...

Diary Day 10 of the Brathay 10in10 (ten marathons in 10 days).

The penultimate day! Pensive, almost proud, perhaps it's still possible, but, the pain! The quad has been rock-taped over night, I've...

Day 8 diary of the Brathay 10 in 10 (10 marathons in 10 consecutive days)