After a paper round at 13-15 my first proper job was working in a local restaurant/pub as a dish washer, with the web designer in fact! Anyway the boss there was in to sport and I still see him now around Porthcawl, only the other day we past each other running. He always used to ask about my running when he came in the kitchen when I was worse than I am now, at the end of every conversation he used to leave and say the line from a Ronan Keating song "Life's a roller coaster..." and then look at me and I would respond with "You've just got to ride it!". I always remember that especially when things are not going quite right, which is a lot of the time and you can't change the past or things out of your control and sometimes it just isn't your day. I have wrote on this blog of a runner who once told me the story about going to the Great North Run with no hotel and sleeping in the back of a Fiat Punto and no breakfast and running sub 65...then no matter what he did he never ran faster, sometimes its your day and sometimes not. 

I always think times like these are good to see who you really have in your corner and to test your resolve and question the passion whether you really want it. It would be easy to quit and just call it a day, I don't do it for the money or to prove anything to anyone just so that when I am sitting on a rocking chair at 80 years old I can be proud of something and I have my targets which are realistic.

The actual team for the World Half is quite confusing in the end after a 'trial race' that didn't include some of the guys who made the team. What was the point of that then?! My personal opinion should be that either the 5 best guys go to the event or the 5 that place in the 'trial' go not a mixture of the two. There is no doubt Wicks should be the first name on the sheet along with Lemoncello who have already run under 63minutes for the half marathon but someone like Ben Whitby has been left out having run 63minutes in March and just had a bad day at the office on Sunday, who is to say one of the former athletes mentioned wouldn't of had a bad day but we will never know. Ben has run fast enough and still put himself on the line which in the end cost him, maybe he should have just run a 10k instead.

I was rooming with Ben Whitby the night before the race, how the hell he wears that 'wasp' vest in every race is beyond me, they are by far the worst kit manufacture in the world bar none! After 2 years out of the sport he is enjoying it after getting frustrated a while back. He is also the quietest guy in the world in the mornings! He didn't want to wake me up as he was going to breakfast early so got everything ready the night before and then snuck out. We shall do battle at the relays Ben....until then if anyone knows where to get some Adidas racing flats (bright yellow ones) let him know as he cant find them after he last pair have worn out!

Well done to Craig Hopkins for his debut Half Marathon (67:10) at only 20 and not a great course.

Simx