#theatrerites

I have spent the last 4 weeks on tour rehearsing and performing at the Salzburg Festival in Austria with Theatrerites show MOJO which I wrote music for. More about that on my music blog here. I ran in some beautiful places in Austria including one run that took in 1500m of accent to a ridge high above the town of Hallein.

I was lucky enough to be in London for 3 weeks rehearsing just round the corner from the Olympics while it was on. It is really inspiring travelling on the tube everyday through Stratford and seeing everything developing ready for the games. When they arrived people were slow to get into them but eventually everyone developed Olympic fever.

 One of the most exciting things about the Olympics was the fact that most of these Elite athletes are real people and there is no celebrity status. The people of London could brush along side exceptional talent. These Athletes were travelling on the tube, you could meet them, and they could talk to you. It is such a breath of fresh air and I think everyone will agree that as the football season starts it feels like we would rather have our Olympians back and I can’t wait for the paralympics to start.

Londoners bestowed a very British combination of respect and nonchalance towards their superhuman tube riders. They very rarely looked up and gave them too much attention apart from the odd photograph. The athletes I saw didn’t get mobbed which was really great. These people are talented and have sacrificed so much to be make the most of themselves, most of the time not for money but to achieve their own goals and because they love what they do. Reminds me of all the great, hard working musicians who are out there doing what they do and then slinking off into the night, on the tube. When you are on the tube early in the morning on the way to a rehearsal and there is Australian gold medallist Alicia Coutts standing next to you, it is uplifting, inspiring and adds a spring in your own step.

Inspired by the Olympic fever in-between rehearsing I set about trying to achieve a few things while I was in London. While continuing my training for the Ipswich Half marathon in September, I was also really excited about trying to run a fast mile, inspired by the book I am reading about Rodger Bannister. He was the first man to run a mile in under 4 minutes. I also listen to a pod cast called marathon talk that is challenging its listeners to run a mile as fast as they possibly can in September.

 So I went to the cinder track in Regents Park. It is an old mile track where 4 laps in the middle lane make a mile. After a few warm up laps I went for it, I was aiming for a time of between 5 minutes and 5.30. After a ridiculously fast first lap I got into my stride the 2nd and 3rd laps went by quite quickly and as I pushed for more from my legs on the last lap I just didn’t have the finish. I finished in 5.40. A challenging distance, not an all out sprint and no-where near a long distance. I will be on the look out for a few races so I can pace myself with other runners, this might be the key to achieving a good time.

 I also won my first race, it came as a surprise, it was a 5k parkrun and not a PB but I ran a good tactical race. It was at Wanstead flats near Leytonstone near where I was staying. I started off without much of an idea of who I was racing against or the course as I arrived literally 20seconds before the start. I followed a few runners in the first half a mile and feeling strong over took them to catch the front runner who was 20m in front, I had to work quite hard to get to him but once I was there I sat on his shoulder and felt the pace, it was a pace I could handle even though the course was off road with lots of twists and turns, I had no idea where I was so I just waited with him and didn’t take the lead, after 2 and a half miles I felt confident that I could overtake him so I waited for a straight and went for it, but he had been waiting as well and as I started to open up my stride he was staying with me, I turned the last corner and lifted my knees up more, the sound of his panting got quieter and the line got closer. There I was, for the first time, the first over the line. I finished in 18.58, I dare say on another day it would have been him over the finish first or someone else way out in front but today was mine!