Saturday 30 December 2017

2017 recap

Well November and December are always really busy months in our house. 3 birthdays and the usual Christmas shannigans meant there was no let up.

It also involved a massive landmark for Jacqui too with her turning 40. We held a surprise party for her and it fulfilled expectations. It was a great night, including everyone being there on her arrival, the dinner, Lukie playing MC and the ensuing party.

On the running front I’ve lost my mojo a little in the last couple of months. I do get bored of it after a while - there is simply too much other crap which I enjoy (Messi has also been suffering from the same syndrome).  

One being the bike and on that I fell heavily in late November hitting an icy patch with my front wheel slipping underneath me whilst travelling 35kmh. Thankfully it was a right hand turn and so careered into the pavement instead of the incoming traffic.

With work travel though I could not get it looked at so a week later flying back into London from another business trip I knew the wound was not right so J took me straight to A&E and lo and behold it was infected. No more ill effects am pleased to say but am still nursing a cracked rib which has been purgetry to run with.

Family: our 4 boys are all well (growing up way too quick) and currently writing on the aeroplane to Geneva for our annual skiing recce. They are beside themselves. 

It’s been a big running year running too with 4,450 KMs clocked and plenty of other shit thrown in, at least another 1,000+ KMs on the bike, summer climbing in the Alps as well as skiing. 

I thought Berlin 2.42.14 would be the highlight but it was trumped by Kenya. That was special and extra special for the one on one time with my #1 boy who turned 14 shortly after getting back home.

It will live with him forever:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ASy7m6U33v47Tp9w1

Befriending all the elite Kenyan athletes in Kericho will not be surpassed, such as running with Bernard Rotich on the Tuesday with him then going on to win the Dublin marathon the following Sunday. That was bonkers. The charity aspect working with the magnificent 5 Talents charity was equally rewarding if not more. It’s been a successful year too raising money for charities and have raised a sizeable sum over the course of the year.

In the end, Berlin was a let down and with better conditions I think I could have ran 2.40 very close. It was simply too wet and humid.  It’s annoying as I am not sure when work will allow me to train to the extent I did.

I don’t have any excuses for London in April and came up short again running another 2.46. In fact, I managed to run 4 marathons this year if you include the local Hilly Long training run I did with Messi in 3 hours as well as the Kericho marathon in Kenya. There is one noticeable change to all of this and that is I stayed broadly injury free for over 12 months which is a first. 

On the family front, I don’t think we could have done any more than we did. It went something like this:

Australia, Seoul, Jack’s tournament in Berlin, climbing in Zermatt with Stevie and JJ, NYC, Biarritz surfing, Lake District, back to Berlin for the marathon (seeing all the old Sydney HuRTs crew), back to NYC, Kenya and then the week skiing in Tignes / Val D’Isere. Chuck in 5 trips each to Amsterdam and Luxembourg as well meant I was moving around at least twice a month. Jacqui also had trips away in Ibiza, Valencia and Stockholm.

On the work front, it’s been the usual enjoyable chaotic mayhem and have now racked up 17 years with GS. 

Looking forward to the journey ahead and what 2018 will offer.

Jacqui’s big day:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VyvAFa9Xba8otGCt2






Saturday 11 November 2017

Kenya - day 8 - Homeward bound after an astonishing week

Groggy this morning after a couple of beers last night as we all piled into the coach for one final drive to Nairobi. Nerves now acclimatised to the nigh on head-on collision every 5 minutes,time passed quickly chatting mostly with Tim and Martin.

We pit-stopped at the same lunch place we visited on the way there and bumped into Vincent (Kenya’s 2nd most happy person after the ‘fixer’ Elisha). I took a great photo of him and T together earlier in the week. He greeted us with the biggest grin around and asked him how he was? Not surprisingly he responded with the line ‘I am happy’.

Now back at the hotel we said our farewells with people going in a host of different directions: Masai mara, Iten, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Lake Victoria......

Tommy and I hung at the pool after a quick brunch with the Peppers and Corinne/Helen.

So many memories for the week and can honestly say that Tommy and I have made a lot of new friendships. All like minded people with a common bond of varying degrees of social justice, all had a lot of offer.

Enjoyed chatting with Martin Yelling (host of the popular Marathon Talk podcast in the UK) and Tim who was the physio for Eddy Izard’s 26 marathons in 26 days. Both are very knowledgeable and appreciated both their insights. Martin shared his views on Paula/husband, Jo Pavey, Cram, Seb Coe and a heap of others in his running circles. Macca also sharing his insights on Mo who he knows second hand.

I also really enjoyed the company of everyone else. To mention a few: Anne/Keria, Helen/Corinne, the Peppers, Colin/Nelly, Abby, both Alex’s. Everyone was super friendly. Enjoyed the conversations too with the Shegog’s,wacky Sean (who is thinking about coming out here for a 3 month training stint) and Rachel’s parents. Her Mum and I hit it off after she told me she was a German teacher.

Special thanks also goes to the respective teams. Rachel is a stand out and have a huge amount of admiration for her. Articulate and able to present in Swahili she is invaluable to 5 Talents. The Impact Marathon Series team of Nick, Kat and Elijah were also extremely good value. Nick is definitely onto something!

It’s been an intoxicating week and the Impact Marathon Series is an ingenious way of combining marathon running with most importantly the 5 Talents micro finance initiative. Having Martin there was a master stroke too as through his connections we basically made friends with all of the top runners in Kericho. For Tommy and I though the highlight was the youth centre at the Mathare slum (I knew it at the time). Doing this trip on your own accord you would never have the opportunity to taste Kenya and its people in the way we have done - you could literally spend months in Kenya playing tourist and only scratch the surface.

There have been lots of superlatives used for this trip but the best I heard all week was 'simply astonishing'.  The goal and impact of the trip was to enrich the lives of others worse off than ourselves but ultimately it also massively impacted and enriched our lives. It's been so varied.

Finally and most importantly it has been special to share this with my #1 boy Tommy. I love him dearly and the memory will hopefully stay with him for the rest of his life.

THANK YOU TO 5Ts AND IMS FOR MAKING THIS WEEK SO VERY SPECIAL.

#TIA - This is Africa

My 2 takeaways and after thoughts;
1. Really important that the 5-Talent micro finance initiatives give the same opportunities to non church folk as per church folk. There needs to be some sort of covenant to control this. I worry that there is a conflict of interest given the trusts naturally gravitate to the church since they are usually the only buildings where the meetings can take place (I understand the point).  It should not be a case of attracting people to the church so that they can have access to the micro finance

2. Notwithstanding the point that the Kericho athletes are prima facie better off than the poorer rural areas which 5 Talents targets, I do think that there needs to be some sort of scheme for the athletes particularly if we keep going back to Kericho - besides being awkward it is the right thing to do.

Marathon Talk summary - I forgive MY for nicking my photo: )
https://marathontalk.com/shows/episode-409-kericho-marathon-kenya/

My photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ASy7m6U33v47Tp9w1

IMS man and true gent Nick and partner Colombia Claudia:




















Kenya - day 7 - Nakuru National Park safari

Drive eastwards to the Nakuru hotel before the safarai where we saw:

impala
starling bird
pelicans
fish eagle
kingfisher (have never ever seen one in the UK before!!!!!)
warthog
gazelle
harrier (bird)
maribou
buffalo
zebra
baboons
hyena
flamencos
white rhino
jackal
giraffe - for me the highlight - up close they look prehistoric, the closest we will see to a dinasour
waterbuck
grey clown crane

Dinner back at the hotel for farewells.