Blackford on...The New York City Marathon... "Given that I dislike New York and loathe marathons, I enjoyed the New York City Marathon immensely. It started well – I managed to avoid getting peed on from the upper deck of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge...."Healthy living... "Four ...
I’ve admitted this before in my column. But I suppose if confession is good for the soul, repeating the confession can’t hurt. So here goes: I’m crazy about running shoes. No I really am and I’m not joking.I like to look at them, read about them, try them on, and buy them. And I’...
After a few years of running 10Ks and half-marathons, the next challenge was the big one: a marathon. Six months ago (when I first received confirmation I had a ballot place) I was made up and devised my training programme carefully. I felt like nothing could stop me.That was unt...
Im injured. I never get injured, but here I am, injured. Whats worse, I suspect that I got injured by congratulating myself on how I never get injured. Im plagued by this sort of thing. For instance, I used to lay awake at night, worrying in case I had hypochondria. I get it...
Life is pain.Life is illusion.Therefore, pain is illusion.Its simply one of the more irritating consequences of Samsara the imaginary world in which were all condemned to stagger about blindfolded, bumping into imaginary objects, physical and mental, thereby sustaining a ho...
It was my accountant’s fault. “You have far too much money,” he said. “You need to get rid of it. For tax purposes.”“How?” said I.“Well, accountancy fees are tax-deductible. I’d be doing you a favour by doubling them.”“Thanks,” I replied, warmly.“But I’m afraid that’s only the s...
‘Ah! Miss-ah Blackfor! Tha’s perfec! Now, put your light foo behine your head an’ SLETCH! Thassit! SLETCH! Perfec!’Amnuoy is a sunny, smiling sadist. Like many Thai people, there’s something engagingly childlike about him. But even the sweetest children like pulling the legs of...
“I can’t imagine why they’ve allowed six days for 105 miles,” read Seaton’s e-mail. “It’s non-stop after all.”If this was supposed to reassure me, it didn’t. I had to remind myself that my editor’s idea of a gentle warm-up for the Trans-Siberian Bare-Foot 500 was a weekend o...
If the ‘World’s Toughest Foot Race’ was merely a race to develop the world’s toughest foot, I’d be laughing. I’d spend a couple of weeks firewalking in Haiti, soak the old plates of meat in permanganate, and bingo! – I’d be quaffing my Special Brew from the Jordan Desert Cup by C...
Why I should have imagined that a 14-mile run along the Cleveland Way in August might be good training for the 105-mile Jordan Desert Cup, remains a mystery. Perhaps I reasoned, not unreasonably, that August = Summer = Heat, and that the combination of sweltering temperatures an...
