One Crowded Hour

Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife, Throughout the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name Thomas Osbert Mordaunt, written during the 7 years war of 1756-1763 At the moment I am reading One Crowded Hour by Tim Bowden. It is a biography of Australian war cameraman Neil Davis (1934-1985) and I could not recommend it more highly. Being 32 I was grew up after the Vietnam war was done and dusted, at school history lessons did not include this era that impacted so greatly on the psyce and fabric of Australian society. Plenty on the big 2 (WWW 1 and 2), but nothing beyond that. Neil was an amazing bloke, a Tassie farm boy with such a fantastic outlook on life (and the running angle he used to coach runners, even by correspondence when he was living in Asia). Just indulge me for one more moment, this is an extract from one of his letters home, after he had contracted Hepatitis. "....It gave me great satisfaction to overcome my medical disabilities and I have confidence that I can overcome any physical or mental problem that will happen to me. I've never been beaten psychologically , whether it is a social game of tennis, or in my work, or anything else. I will never admit defeat - even though I've had some fairly serious defeats, both on the tennis court and in my work" So just read it :-) No running today, a scheduled rest day. Feeling quite good despite yesterday's effort, barely any soreness in the legs. Instead today I have been turning my thoughts to some longer term goal setting and thinking about the mental game, hence the quotes above. I will not be happy just plodding out a jog a couple of days a week, just to keep fit. I want to set goals and strive to achieve them. Sure I will never be a Betina Johnson, but I can still fulfill my own potential and don't want to be fat and 50 thinking about what might have been. So along with the physical training I am trying to get my head right, to learn to believe that I can do it. My problems Nerves at the start Negative thoughts during the guts of the race Panicky feelings in the closing km Positives from Sunday Less nerves at the start, think having a laugh and the companionship of runners that I know helped Didn't feel sick until after I crossed the finish line this time and it passed quickly, within 30 seconds I was jogging up to meet some friends who had finished an earlier event