Licorice Allsorts & Banana Suits

I am pretty bad at remembering things like my friends birthdays. I have a number of good reasons to remember Fluff's birthday, cos it was also the day Christina and I got engaged. It is therefore 6 years ago (+1 day) since Christina and I got engaged, and 6 years+ 1 day since we met Donna for the first time (we remember how proud Ian was to introduce us). This was at Fluff's birthday bash at the Salty Dog in St Aubin. No super-heated cans of Heineken on the BBQ on that occasion- but that was more due to the positive influence of Christina and Donna rather than anything to do with Fluff and I.

Today's posting is going to be a little like the end of school church service at Wesley Grove in Jersey - you remember the ones, where the vicar talks about licorice allsorts for ten minutes, and then says, "and in a funny way, licorice allsorts are a lot like Jesus", and tries to make the anecdote fit the point he was trying to make. A little bit like that anyway.

One of the best times I had with Ian was when we piled a load of windsufing kit and a couple of guitars into his Bedford Midi van (aka Fluffy 2) and went off to the French student windsurfing champs in La Tranche sur Mer. Beer was drunk, rubbish was talked, and Ian parked his van in other people's caravans. Whilst they were trying to eat breakfast. This was the famous trip where a guy called Matt tried to convince everyone, in a public-spirited kind of way, that if they should ever fall off something high, they had to grab the grass when they hit the deck. It apparently wasn't the landing that killed you, but the bounce - grab the grass, you don't bounce. Matt then demonstrated this by falling/jumping off the roof of the bungalow we were staying in.

However, when it came to the competition, Ian was all business. When he wasn't asleep in a board bag in the back of his van, he was absolutely 100% committed to each race he did. I spoke to him once when he was just about to start, and he didn't even register I was there - he was focused on what he was about to do.

I took the event far less seriously, which wasn't particularly hard to do when you're entered as "Scary" (The guy filling in my entry form only knew my nickname..) I came a typically unfocused 56th. Ian came 6th, behind a few guys from the French Olympic Squad.

(Here comes the licorice allsorts bit).

As time passes, and our training plan lurches forward - it is increasingly clear that I'm going to need to be a lot more focused to do this. I can bleat on and claim work commitments/travel obligations (I have to go to Washington and New York this week) but, come October 5th, the excuses will just sound lame. I have done 10k this weekend, but I'm still a long way off being ready, and I'm not going to be ready without some serious effort and focus. The weathers getting better, running is starting to be more fun than it was, and having watched the London Marathon start today, it made the big old start of the Great North Run seem to be not that far away.

Finally, from watching the London Marathon stuff on the telly today, I have identitfied a new and dark fear - it is that of being overtaken by someone wearing a banana suit or deep-sea diving outfit, when I think I'm running really well.