PROMATHON

I could get used to this lifestyle; morning training runs, followed by prolonged periods of...well not a lot to be honest. Or to be more precise prolonged periods of not a lot - with Quality Street thrown in!

Did the Black Bun Run on Monday night. Slightly over 1.5 miles of eyeballs-out effort from the Masons Arms in Dunbar to West Barns and back.
Ended up trailing in behind Grant, and 1 second down on my time of the last two years!

Tuesday morning saw us away to Portobello for the traditional New Years Day "Promathon" - a four mile dash "there and back" along the sea front.
Always a big crowd for this race. Slightly down on last year, but still a good turnout. The "new" registration venue (the indoor bowling club) was a nice feature this year and it offered a comfortable warm shelter to meet up with others before the run.
As for the race? Well, again my descriptive powers are going to let me down. I honestly don't pay a lot of attention to whats going on around me while I'm racing. It's always just a case of "heads down and get on with the job at hand". Especially shorter distances like this. At least with halfs and mara's you can get into a rhythm and something getting close to a "comfortable" pace.

Photo by Bob Marshall. Many more HERE

By the end of a race like this your lungs ache, your heart should be pounding like Gene Krupas bass drum, your mouth has that horrible "metallic" taste in it, and if your like me you probably can hardly hear a thing because the increase in blood pressure has set off your tinnitus. Yes indeed - "running" we only do it for fun!

I knew when I saw my time (23:04) that I was down on last year. Strange thing though, my position was slightly "better" (22nd rather than 29th last year). Don't know whether to be happy or not. But knowing me, I think I'll settle for "not". Did too few interval sessions in 2012 and it's showing!!



In years gone by I would have been "up the toon" twixt Christmas and New Year fulfilling my obligation as one of the demographic group known as "50 quid bloke". That band of happy middle aged souls who prop up the music industry by, as the name suggests, spending upwards of £50 in one visit.
Don't do that anymore. I think it all dates back to one year when a visit to a "vodka bar" got a bit "over exuberant". And, while I do like him, that years purchase of about £50 worth of Thelonious Monk records didn't really sit well with the resulting two day hangover. Trust me. If you want to "get into" the music of Monk - don't try it with a hangover! Or if you want to shop for jazz and drink - shop first!!
Anyway, this year "£50 bloke" has been surfing the interweb. Managed to grab a right mixed bag so far this year (and I'm not finished yet). Best so far? "Red Rodney Returns" -  a session from 1959 by the bebop trumpet legend. The "returns" probably refers to a short absence from the scene while he was serving time for drugs misdemeanors. Other than his early stuff with Bird all my Red Rodney stuff until now has been from his later years (1980's onward) so it's nice to get something like this.
I've also picked up a few albums by Nat Burchill. A sax player from Manchester - heard him first on Mathew Halsall's albums. Really laid back Coltrane/Sanders type of sound. Nice.