relief and paula

I woke up relieved this morning. Relieved my legs weren’t too stiff after running for an hour yesterday. It’s the Bristol half marathon in September and I’m behind in my training. It wasn’t helped by Sardinia – I didn’t fancy getting up too early on holiday, so even running at 8am was really hot. However, on my first run out there I thought running along the beach would be a good idea so decided to run through the little river we’d waded through the day before – unfortunately I picked a deeper spot and sprained my ankle on a rock. I might be 50 later this year, but I still act as if I’m 15. Personally, I’m OK with this bit – it’s just the after effects! So how do they perform out in Beijing with heat? It’s certainly increased my admiration for what the athletes contend with. I’m really enjoying our amazing performances – it’s so good (so unusual too I’m not used to this) being able to cheer so many people into the medal places. The most successful Olympics for GB for a century now – what a fantastic turn around. There are so many great stories and pictures from these Olympics, but my favourite so far has to be the picture of Paula Radcliffe and Liz Yelling at the end of the marathon. Neither medalled, both were injured, but it just said so much – yes, I confess I had a tear in my eye too having stayed up till 3am to watch. I knew Paula couldn’t really win, but just in case she did it was one I wanted to watch as it happened. Not sure what some of the good folk at Milton made of it preaching there later that same morning. Certainly not the preparation for worship I remember getting preached about when I first became a Christian!