Life, I have concluded, is more like a fartlek session than a marathon. It jogs along for years at a steady pace then it passes the second lamppost after the church and vroom! its head goes down and suddenly its thundering along at a five
formality of planning permission. My pelvis accepted this honour with an enthusiasm bordering on indecent haste, and set off at a brisk pace down the muscles of my right leg.A year later, the declaration was rescinded and an orthopaedic surgeon retained
’t hard-packed and it soon dawned on me what Jordan would really be like. Within minutes, we were reduced to Scout’s Pace. By the time we reached the station car park and the blessed ministrations of our loved ones, we were nearly dead. Oscar drank three
per cent humidity reduced my pace to a sweat-sodden slouch. The road wound up from the coast, through canyons hewn from ancient corals and draped with curtains of vines. Ten minutes on this modest little hill and I was gasping. My legs were cast from
nose and a marked disinclination to move at any pace more taxing than a ruminative stroll.The second my generous backside connected with his saddle, he was transformed into a wild, unbroken stallion of the type mounted by cowboys for prize money in Wild
as fast as today’s sorry bunch.“Ah! Good morrow, Mister Blackford!” At least Norman managed a semblance of cheery bonhomie. Harry just grunted at the dog, and Big Ron barely raised a grimace.“You’re slow today,” I replied as I tagged on to their flank
… and having adjusted them in the light of the mysterious ‘could/couldn’t give a monkey’s’ factor, sets the internal metronome governing my rate of energy-deployment so that, whatever the race, I run it at a pace just short of the impossible.I’d like to think
