Just a normal guy called Patrick.

“Run for 20 minutes and you’ll feel better. Run another 20 and you might tire. Add on 3 hours and you’ll hurt, but keep going and you’ll see—and hear and smell and taste—the world with a vividness that will make your former life pale.”

It’s all about performance, cunning and stunning.

Whether that be a thrower’s strength

Or the advantage of a hurdler’s leg length.

Perhaps the faith of a jumper in the air and flying

Or maybe the speed of a sprinter that seems undying.

Sometimes it takes a distance runner’s intuition.

But no matter what, it’s all about conviction.

We cannot forget why we volunteered for pain,

For tough workouts, and practice in the rain.

Just think back to a memory or two

And know that we are many of a few.

A group that makes torture an art

Requiring endless spirit and a strong heart.

But we cannot forget to have fun

Despite the deafening starter’s gun.

Looking back I recall a certain race

Of great success and speedy pace.

My last high school race at the state meet

And afterwards I could barely stand on my feet.

As I was walking off the track with a friend of mine

I remember him saying this exact line:

“I think I peed myself a bit in the last 100 meters, whew!”

To which I laughed at him and confessed, “Me too.”

I will never forget the friends I’ve made,

Even sprinters, I’m afraid.

Because the sport yields a strange atrocity:

A distance runner and sprinter animosity.

Let’s start with distance runners and their mocks

Of sprinters and their “silly blocks.”

But they will never understand a sprinter’s ways,

The term “fly zone” or “drive phase.”

Okay, so maybe sprinters will never know

The importance of each pre-race ritual.

And they might never know the name

Steve Prefontaine.

But we both share a common goal:

To give it our all no matter the toll.

So let’s set aside our differences and join

Doing our very best using every last coin.

Because a runner is a miser,

Competing to see who is the wiser,

Spending coins of energy

Both physically and mentally,

Constantly wanting to know how much has been spent,

The cost and timely extent,

Wanting to give up the very last dime

At the precise and perfect time.

I am a runner, plain and true.

Hills and mud, I struggle through.

Rain and snow won’t keep me in,

And when I race, I race to win.

When that finish line is in sight,

I start to kick with all my might.

Because whether I win the race or not.

All it takes is all you’ve got.

So before you step up to the starting line

Keep one simple phrase in mind:

If you are going to push yourself to the limit,

Then you’ve gotta risk it to get the biscuit.

Hello there!

Today I want to share a neat trick I picked up in my second year of medical school. It requires a bit of practice and a bit of revision. But once you get the hang of it it’ll save you a LOT of trouble and hassle when it comes to memorisation “and cramming lol”.

Right…so here’s what you need: -Your notes (or whatever you need to memorise). -Something with a countdown timer (I use the one on my phone).

-What you’re going to do is you’re going to set a couple of minutes for each page. For example, you tell yourself you’re going to memorise this page in 10 minutes. So you set the timer to 10 minutes and you begin memorising (repeating things over and over, walking around as you read, underlining things to make sure you get them, whatever floats your boat). When the 10 minutes end, you flip to the next page…even if you haven’t finished that page yet. Now this is why I said this will require practice. And while it’s an awesome method for cramming, don’t do it right before exams if you’ve never done it before… When you’re timing your memorisation, you’re basically telling yourself that there is no room for messing around. You can’t check facebook (the timer will ring any minute!), you can’t keep going to the kitchen for snacks, and you can’t spend “just one minute” talking to your roommates. It’s a really good way to discipline yourself, especially if you’re a major procrastinator like me. You’re telling yourself that you’ve got 10 minutes and 10 minutes ONLY to memorise this page, and if you fail…well you’re going to fail the questions about this page. We don’t really want that to happen, of course lol…So you’re going to go over that page again tomorrow and make sure you get everything in those 10 minutes. This is just to scare yourself so that you won’t procrastinate the next time. Soon you’ll train your mind to focus completely on what you’re studying in those 10 minutes, so you’ll do a lot more work in those minutes than you’d normally do