Thursday, September 14, 2006

"Sixty seconds' worth of distance run.."

Thursday morning - swimming 6.30am
Yes, I finally returned to the pool after weeks and weeks of slacking off. In fact I enjoyed it and surprised myself by actually managing to swim a kilometre in two sets of 500m to break it up a little. I met CJ there and after our swim we enjoyed brekkie at RBB where Mr B joined us - a good start to the day.

After Work - speedygeoff's training session - 5.30pm
I arrived too late for most of the first warm-up loop of the oval but managed the second loop. It was good to see Marg and Barb there tonight as well as the usual suspects. It was a good session made up as follows:

2 warm-up loops of oval

1 x 30secs fast; 60secs slow
1 x 40secs fast; 80secs slow
1 x 50secs fast; 110secs slow
1 x 60secs fast; 2 minutes slow
1 x 50secs fast; 110secs slow
1 x 40secs fast; 80secs flow
1 x 30secs fast; 60secs slow

Then we repeated all the above set one more time before a cool down loop.

Total distance: 8.53km

As speedygeoff was running beside me at one stage he quoted a line from Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" which I remember so well from my childhood when my mum offered half a crown for the first of us siblings to recite the poem in full. My brother won the prize and coincidentally went on to become a Professor in Linguistics - maybe that was his start in the world! Following is the poem which still is one of my favourites.

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat these two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it in one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on where there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can walk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run;
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

2 comments:

  1. IF has great memories for me - like you, I learnt IF when I was young; Percy Cerutty quoted from IF when I visited Portsea as a teenager, and IF was the favorite poem of my late father-in-law, no doubt helping his resolve when he was in Changi Prison and on the Burma railway.

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  2. I remember Ron Clarke quoted some lines in his book 'The Unforgiving Minute'. It is quite inspirational.

    "If you can fill the unforgiving minute; With sixty seconds' worth of distance run"

    Well done on your MS Fun Run!

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