Sunday 22 April 2018

Running marathons.

The London marathon is being held this weekend. It’s going to be a hot one by all accounts.
I shall not be watching it but there was a time when it was required viewing in our house.
We needed to check on a relation.
David’s brothers wife had taken up running in her old age.
This news alarmed us at first. Madge Sharples was around seventy at the time.
She looked frail but actually she was as tough as any old boot.
Running had never been part of her life but she had something to prove to her husband who took a lofty view on all this unnecessary activity.
She trained for it every day by running to work...about five miles there and five back.
On the great day no one expected her to finish but she did.....eventually.. for a year or so she captured the imagination of the nation.
The book she wrote was called. "Fun at fifty. Sin at sixty."
I don’t know if it sold.
Long distance runners of note sent her presents of special trainers, flimsy shorts etc. ,
She enjoyed frequent requests to appear on the television.
In her old age she became a celebrity, even at one stage having her own show on Southern television.
Madge proved that giving up at seventy was not an option.
She didn’t live long enough to know that I’d become a priest in my old age.
No doubt she’d have had something cogent to say about it.
But I won’t be watching the run this morning and I hope they don’t overheat en route.
Run on up there Madge...you set the trend!

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1 comment:

UKViewer said...

I spent a great deal of my adult life running, a necessary part of Army Training. But the time I entered my mid-fifties, I had problems with my knees, a consequence of years of running on roads and hard surfaces, often carrying weight.

I stopped as I wanted to preserve my fitness, so walking is now the exercise and playing table tennis keeps me going as well

I don't envy those who run marathons on road, I just hope that their knee's hold up longer than mine did.