March 7th

Woke up to find left knee and right foot “seized up”, so an hour of strechtes with Shane and instruction to “keep moving”.

 

My wife read yesterday’s blog and has grumbled, I quote:

 

“I’d rather have a prize than power! With power comes responsibility – with prizes comes smugness!! (Depends on the power, and the prize, of course). Please can I have my prize now?”

 

To which I replied:

 

“Explains a lot…all smugness and no responsibility, feel important but no real authority – even the dog follows me …! No doubt on Thursday I shall look like a general from a banana republic swathed with gold ribbon, stars, medals, sashes…might be hard to run with all the weight of the awards and clinking of tin!”

 

But this failed to stop the bleating and I therefore let you, the reader, act as jury to the following outburst:

 

“I think Clare, Shane and I deserve medals for being so long-suffering (and I know the children have been feeling deserving of reward for many months now…) ‘The home team’ has shown great powers of stamina and endurance in listening to step-by-step accounts of each run and scientifically incorrect (according to Frederick Jr, who is doing Biology A-level) explanations of why you are/ aren’t allowed certain foods. We have also shown great steadfastness in ignoring ‘the zeal of the convert’ and trying to gloss over all your suggestions that the rest of us enter next year’s marathon (not to mention your kind comment that, were I to do so, I could change my shape…)

 

I think Clare and Shane may have the easier side of the deal, as, if your commentary becomes too irritating in a training session, they can just make you work harder, so you ‘save your breath to cool your broth’… but, given the Dodo Effect, I am quite happy for all of us to step up onto the medal podium together…. Will you be presenting us with our prizes on 25th April? Or perhaps you won’t be able to walk/ stand by then?!”

 

To this I respond as follows:

 

At the age of 18 (tomorrow) my son’s interest in biology should be entirely focused on what most young men ‘study’ as biology at that age and not be confined to the dry and dusty text books of A level. The biology I studied at that age was a whole lot more fun although, I regret, very little practical experience!

 

And in conclusion? Well you, the reader, may be the jury but the judge can be no higher than the bard himself, William Shakespeare who, in terms of rewards, wrote “men prize the thing ungained more than it is!” (Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2). Although the bard’s reference was to the pursuit of women this can be applied equally to the pursuit of Corinthian awards!