Running Right.

Being the supreme athlete that I am and very conscious that 2012 is just around the corner, I thought I'd better get myself a new pair of running shoes. I have been running, on and off, since I was at school, and that was so long ago even my memories of that time are in sepia!

To date, I have not exactly put much investment into the area of running shoes. I guess I've always seen such items as little more than up-market plimsolls, and so I've never exactly lashed out more than about £40 (or less) for such items. Well, the last pair I bought must be about 4 years old. However, given that time seems to rush by much more quickly when you get to my age, it was probably more like 5 or 6 years ago when I bought them. To say they were in need of  replacing would be an understatement. They were visibly rotting on top and coming apart at the seams. The soles were very worn and the inside was characterised by the dried sweat of innumerable miles of running.

Of late, it has been suggested to me that I am becoming a bit of an embarrassment when competing in running events. Of course this revelation was quite a shock to me, but then, when I thought about it I decided there might be something in this. I have been wearing, for example, just about any old tee shirt which found its way to the top of the pile. Given that I'd never paid more than 3 or 4 pounds Stirling for a tee shirt in my life, I found it hard to accept that I should start spending upwards of £15 plus for a running vest. I have to say, that I was rather shown up by my eldest son in the last event we ran in together. He wore a really smart blue Nike top and if I am honest, I did look rather like someone dressed in the attire of a destitute disposition. Anyway, as it was my birthday recently, I was given a couple of proper posh running vests, all swish with very flowy material. I have to say, I am now a convert to paying extra for quality. Running in the vests is a joy, they seem to breath, with the feeling of the air flowing around my chest. Also, they do not get heavy with sweat! No doubt they will also last longer, though I do have a tendency to keep wearing clothes until way past their "use-by" date.

Today, we headed into Cambridge where I was determined to get myself a pair of decent running shoes. Now, for a long time it has been recommended to me that I should visit "Advanced Performance". The name appeals to me because, as stated I am an advanced athlete, if only with respect to my age! I suppose one thing which has been putting me off was the idea I might have to spend more than £40! Even so, feeling enlightened by the experience of my wonderful new running vests, I decided to throw caution to the winds.

Advanced Performance is different to any other sports shop I have ever visited. It is different because you get personal attention from a sports expert who is genuinely interested that you, the customer, get the best possible product available to suit your needs. This is achieved by being invited to try out various running shoes and running with them out on a tread mill. Your feet are being videoed as you run and it is then a matter of reviewing the action to see how your gait is out of true from the ideal. After repeating the process several times, you then end up with a pair of trainers which best compliment and correct your running style to achieve the best performance. In the end I had a choice of three pairs of shoes to choose from, all with similar characteristics. The final decision is based upon comfort (it should not be upon price) and looks, or any brand preference you might harbour. To make my decision I was invited to leave the store and run up and down the road. I liked the Nike shoes the best, so that's the pair I bought. They cost me a lot more than £40, but I will know it is worth it when I will no doubt burn up the opposition in my future races and bring home the medals!

Right or Wrong?

An argument many religious people put forward is that to have a proper sense of morals you need faith in God. Well, it is my contention that this is a load of rubbish as you can have all the faith you like in something that does not exist, but it won't make a blind bit of difference! God does not exist. Its just a very dangerous figment of the deluded imagination.

Anyway, before drifting too far off at a tangent, I guess I'd better set myself on course again.

In the Book of Genesis we find Adam and Eve, the first Man and Woman roaming the Garden of Eden blissfully ignorant of the difference between right and wrong and also blissfully ignorant of the evil trap which this so called kind and loving God had set for them. God had planted a tree in the garden, the fruit of which, once eaten would reveal the difference between right and wrong, good and evil if you will. So we find Eve suddenly being "tempted" and encouraged by a "talking snake" - yeah right - to eat of the fruit of the tree - which after a bit of conversation with the snake, she does. She also gives the fruit to Adam and suddenly they become morally aware. They are then ejected from the Garden of Eden, and Eve punished by the pain of child bearing and the poor old snake has to crawl around on his belly. Of course, as the snake is actually a snake, he doesn't exactly see this as much of a punishment!

My point is this: This "original sin" committed in the Garden of Eden has been passed down through the generations together with its consequences. This can only mean that we are all aware of right and wrong, good or evil whether or not we have faith in God. Also, you only have to look at the jaw droppingly evil atrocities committed in the name of this awful non-existent God down the ages right up to the present day, to realise that where people of faith are concerned, so called morals and knowledge of good and evil is so distorted and corrupted, that any normal person of common sense must realise that its actually religion, faith - call it what you will - which makes people commit evil in the most cold blooded and callous ways imaginable. Yes I know there are any number of atheists who commit evil deeds but at least they don't do it in the name of this so called loving, but actually thoroughly evil God. You don't have to have faith to be morally aware. If you have no faith your sense of morality is almost certainly in far better shape than any "Man of God".

One final thought, your friendly local Church is at the pink and fluffy edge of a much darker and evil system. Don't fall foul of it. Don't be deluded.

Time for change?

I note at this time of the General Election there is a lot of talk that it is time for a change. Thats what the prevailing mood was in 1997, and look where it got us!!! This is all well and good provided the change is a change for the better, and not just more of the same - or worse.

However, being a person who looks, sees, and observes, I have noticed that while people may well be of this state of mind, its often a different story when the change is something being asked of them, and not someone else. Nothing stays the same for ever. Systems change, Organizations change. Governments change. Companies change. The rules change. Technologies change and the way we have to do things change.

If we are going to move forward and progress in life, in society, and as individuals, then we all have to accept change.

For many people, particularly those set in their ways, change demanded of them comes hard, and difficult to accept. However, for those who embrace it, life is much better and holds out new and unexpected possibilities.

However, at this point I wish to make a "health warning", and it is this: change for the sake of change is negative, counterproductive and often demoralizing. Change which is deliberately brought about should only be for constructive reasons, and anything else is destructive.

Ultimately, change comes to all of us whether we like it or not. Its just a fact of life - embrace it and move on.

Much ado about nothing

Well, golly gosh whats happened to me? I haven't posted for ages and I seem to be suffering from a severe dose of "blogger's block". I just haven't thought of anything worth writing about; just totally blank!

I have a request: will "Anonymous" please stop sending me spurious comments. They ain't gonna get published - no way.

So, what has been happening in my fun packed life of late? Not a lot. For the last couple of days I've been walking around like the "Elephant Man" with half my face swollen and bloated due to an abscess. It started as a slight pain in the gum above my right canine. It finished with me nearly climbing up the wall at 2.00 in the morning! Finally, I found myself in the dentist chair for root canal treatment, after a course of antibiotics. The injection to "numb me up a bit" was incredibly painful, I squirmed like I haven't squirmed before. It felt like a red hot needle going straight into my bone. The trouble was, that I couldn't detect any numbing effect and told the dentist so before he started drilling. Even so, drill he did, and did, and did.........

Everything seemed to be OK until he started poking and scraping around inside the drilled out cavity; he hit a nerve and I nearly jumped out of the chair. He decided this was a good time to stop digging it any deeper. I did not disagree. Even so, he had to get the poison out so he squeezed my gums - hard - and it hurt like hell. I knew the poison was coming out because I could smell and taste it! I asked if I could rinse my mouth out. What I swilled out into the bowl was not pretty, some of it black. Finally he filled up the cavity and made me another appointment to come back next week. I paid £60, a fraction of the final price for the treatment. Even so, its better than losing the tooth.

I have got the running bug again. I used to go running with a club but could not, in the end, find the free evenings to keep attending the week-night training sessions. Even so, I now train at the gym and out on the road with my eldest son who has also got the bug. We are a bit inspired by Eddie Izard's "Sports Relief" multi-marathon effort. We are not planning to match it though! Training at the moment is for the Cambridge Festival of Running 10k event in April. Last year I ran it in 52 minutes. This year I aim to finish it in less than 50 minutes. At the moment I am on track to do so.

At the weekend I did my annual pilgrimage to "Focus on Imaging", the annual photography trade show at the NEC. Years ago it was called "Photography at Work", then they changed the name and the venue. The NEC is now it's regular home. Anyway, this year I saw a demonstration of Panasonic's 3D TV. This employed the shutter glasses system and I have to say it was really impressive. Although they weren't saying when it was going to appear in the likes of "John Lewis", but my suspicion is it'll be sometime in June - watch this space! I don't suppose I'll buy one though, as I've already said in a previous posting that I am waiting for glasses - free 3D TV before I buy one. Anyway, I haven't had my current set for very long, and I'm certainly not putting it on the scrap heap yet.

One thing I did at the NEC which was different for me, was I bought myself a new camera. Of late, my photography exploits have pretty much gone into reverse, and I was also feeling that my current equipment is getting a bit long in the tooth. So, having given due consideration to buying a Lumix G2 - which was on show, but not on sale at the show, I opted to buy the Canon EOS 550D. It was on sale at a price which was too good to miss, so I just had to have it! Its got 18 Mega Pixels, live-view and 1080P HD video recording, including a socket for an external microphone. All I need now is to get out and take some masterpieces. I will, from time to time, publish some of the results on this blog.

Keep on Running

Today was a special day in that I felt really alive for the first time in weeks. I went for a run around Cambridge with my eldest son and we covered a distance of 12.1 km. This was good because we are training for a 10km road race in April.

So far I have been training at the gym and over the past 3 weeks I have been stepping up the treadmill distance by 1km a week starting at 5km. For those with a maths (math if you are American) degree, you will quickly pick up on the fact that my last session amounted to 7km, with a little extra for the cool down. I went for a run in the freezing wastelands over the New Year break and was shocked at how unfit I seemed to be despite going regularly to the gym. However, after about a kilometre I found my pace and my breath and got into a rhythm and continued for a little over another 4 kilometres.

And so it was that I found myself running along the river Cam just after midday today. For about the first kilometre I was puffing away like a Victorian steam engine heading for the knackers’ yard! My son, however, had a good plan, and that was every couple of kilometres walking a couple of hundred yards. Now this is not cheating. After all, we were in training and it wasn’t a race. The only thing which mattered was getting back and having a good run in between.

It wasn‘t really until today that I appreciated as well what a great place Cambridge is. Of course, with living so close to the place I come here quite a lot shopping, and even had the odd walk taking photographs in the dying golden rays of the late afternoon sun in Autumn, but running around the place as I did today I saw it in a different light. Running along by the river, there were lots of university students out rowing with their mainly female coxes shouting the directions to them. There were barges moored and lots of other people out running as well as ourselves. It was all very picturesque and I plan to walk some of the route taking photos, as it is full of character and very photogenic.

I didn’t spot anyone as old as me though, they were all young, lithe, fit things. This is good as far as I am concerned. Age is no barrier when it comes to running. I have a friend who is 72 this year and still runs the London Marathon including a lot of other races besides. The oldest marathon runner I am aware of is a 98 year old Sikh. Most people can’t even walk at that age, let alone run marathons! There is hope for us all! I was wondering how long I will go on running for myself as since I hit the big six-o I suddenly felt a lot older. However, its all in the mind and the reality is I am actually very fit in terms of most people my age and a lot of the people I know, so I’ve no plans of easing up for many years.

Running is one of the best ways I know of keeping fit. You burn up more calories at a greater rate than in most other forms of exercise, and its great for keeping the cardio vascular system in good order. Its also very exhilarating. Once the adrenalin kicks in you really can find yourself on a high! Running through the centre of Cambridge past all the heavily wrapped up shoppers felt really good. It was also good to be amongst so many shops and not spending any money!

When we finished we were on a high and feeling that we could have run a lot further - maybe next time. Following a wonderful shower (all showers are wonderful when you are covered in cold sweat), we went to a restaurant and I had my favourite health food - burger and chips - lovely! I also had a pint of Murphy’s but I wasn’t bitter.

Oblogotary reading: Another life?

Oblogotary reading: Another life?

Another life?

I've just finished reading a book by Liz Hodgkinson called "Reincarnation - The Evidence". It was published in 1989, though I suppose that's pretty irrelevant.

It was given to me for free, so I didn't have to suffer the pain of spending any money.

Now, if you've been following this blog you will know that I am an atheist. Even so, I've always had a feeling that I have lived before - just a feeling mind, and that proves nothing. Anyway, I had high hopes for this book that it might be quite revelatory, but it wasn't. Much of the book was about what different religions believe about reincarnation. That is no evidence at all. Just because someone believes something does not make it true. She looks at hypnotic regression and there are some interesting cases there. However, she admits that there are so many problems with this that it is somewhat doubtful that people really are seeing into a previous life. More tantalizing is the evidence provided by young children who talk about a previous life. Many of these cases are from the Far East where belief in reincarnation is much more prevalent than in the west, and so is much more readily accepted.

She claims that a belief in reincarnation can explain many things in life, like why, for instance some people are born into very rich families while others live their lives in squalor. Why some people are hugely talented and others not .... etc ....etc. This is to do with Karma, a kind of cause and effect whereby the way we live one life affects the next. Personally I think this is highly unlikely, although I suppose its a nice idea. The trouble is she kind of spoils it for me by suggesting at the end that souls are eternal in that they have always existed and are therefore immortal. The trouble with this is that it is very close to trying to believe in God, and to me that is just not tenable. She suggests that humans have always existed and that we have always been this way, distinct from the animals. That really spoiled it even more for me as it completely ignores all our discoveries in evolution, both biological and cosmological. I came to the conclusion that while she obviously gets a lot of comfort from her own belief in evolution, she loads it down with so much spiritual baggage that I just couldn't swallow it.

Speaking for myself, I am not completely averse to the idea of reincarnation, but I would take a more objective approach to the idea. Given that there was a time just over 60 years ago when I did not exist, there will in the future be another time when I again return to the same state. As I came out of that state and am here now, then why not again in the future? Of course, there has to be a soul or spirit which passes from one body to another for "me" to exist again. This is getting into the supernatural though, and I am very cautious as to how far I can take this. As I am a convinced believer in science and evolution, I try not to sway too far away into the supernatural. I cannot conceive of an eternal soul because the universe is a finite age. I can only surmise that if we do have a soul it appeared at some point during our evolution, and I would guess that would most likely have been when we became conscious and self-aware. It could be that once a soul has come into existence it might have an indefinite life span, but what happens when there is no more humanity, or no more habitable universe??? Maybe it time expires.... One final thought, and that is if we (for the most part) don't remember our previous lives then is it meaningful to believe in such a thing? I guess the "Karma" idea is a way of trying to bring meaning into the concept, otherwise, the belief while bringing some kind of comfort in that death is not the end, fails to completely satisfy our desire for immortality because if you have no knowledge of the previous life, then in what sense can you say you have lived it??

Answers on a postcard please to...............