Day 6 of RED January

 Onward!

The snow was completely gone today, leaving just puddles and mud, although there's more cold weather on its way. I contented myself with a slightly shorter run, not helped by forgetting to start my Garmin until I'd already gone some way. My musical accompaniment was Antiphon, the fourth album by the splendid Midlake, which came out in 2013. I've been listening to this record on and off for over a decade and it's really been a grower, gradually settling into my consciousness as a piece of music I wouldn't want to be without. It's one of those records where, once you've allowed it into your life, you can't imagine how the songs could be ordered in any other way. It's just perfect, seamless, a startlingly coherent creative statement, and all the more wonderful given that it came out a period of disruption in the story of the band. It's also just about the perfect length for a nice run.

I couldn't really tell you what any of the songs are about. They seem to hover just out of reach, implying some ineffable profundity of meaning which hasn't quite revealed itself, but which might do so at any moment. Or they could just be a load of old cobblers. If so, it's still brilliant cobblers. Thank you Midlake (and I like the last album, too, I've just temporarily misplaced it).

Best,

Al

Days 4 and 5 of RED January

 I was up ready for parkrun, but we had a number of cancellations in the volunteer group due to the weather, so I took over one of the timekeeping positions instead. Later in the day I went out for my own run:

It started snowing not long after I got back, followed by rain today, so rather than brave the slush and ice, I hopped on the treadmill for a shorter recovery run this afternoon.

That takes us about a sixth of the way into the challenge. So far so good, but one mustn't get cocky. There'll be some challenges ahead, no doubt.

Here's a link to the fundraising page: 

RED January

Cheers, Al

Day 3 of RED January

 A two for one this time as I'm uploading yesterday's run as well as today's. 

This is my fourth consecutive run as I ended 2024 by running in the Nos Galan road races in Mountain Ash on New Year's Eve. Nos Galan is a wonderful community event which celebrates the life of the legendarily fast Welsh runner Guto Nyth Brân, who lived between 1700 and 1737. Here I am plodding around the course a few evenings ago. I think you can get an idea of the amazing atmosphere of Nos Galan, which is always brilliant regardless of the weather. Nearly 900 of us did the 5K fun run and I can't wait to do it all again at the end of 2025.

Thanks, Al

RED January

 I'm going to beg your patience by mentioning another fundraising initiative I'm doing, although I've set a somewhat more modest a target than I did for the Cardiff Half.

The RED in RED January stands for "rise every day", or, for some of us, "run every day". The RED January movement is about boosting mental health during what can be a challenging time of year, at least in this hemisphere. A little bit of activity, especially done outdoors, can make a massive difference to mood and well-being. I did my own unofficial RED challenge in 2023, running 31 consecutive days, and was enjoying the benefits so much I continued well into the year. After developing a few aches I eventually cut back to six out of seven days, but I kept that pattern going throughout the remainder of 2023 and found it helped enormously with mental and physical resilience. 2024 wasn't as good - I picked up a niggling injury which knocked me back a bit, and in addition, a lot of my training became focused on longer runs in preparation for the half. I'm still doing a half this October, but I won't start preparing for that until somewhat later in the year. For now, I'll be looking to run somewhere between 3 and 5K each day between now and the end of the month, come what way. Most of the runs will be outdoors but (as I did in 2023) I'll resort to a treadmill if we get snow and ice.

I'll be documenting my runs as I go. Here is my run for January 1st:

And here is a link to the RED January fundraising page:

RED January

I'm looking to raise 100 pounds for RED's charity partner, Mind over Mountains.

Other than getting my running shoes on, and making sure my Garmin and MP3 player are properly charged up, I'll be working on the Merlin book, drafting an introduction to a new Gollancz edition of REVELATION SPACE (this is its 25th anniversary - a quarter of a century!) and anticipating the next round of editorial requests on HALCYON YEARS. I'll be listening to some of the lovely new bits of vinyl I got for Christmas from my wife, notably The Police's Ghost in the Machine, Simple Minds' Sparkle in the Rain, and the brilliant Sam Fender's second album. Thanks, my wife!

And again, best wishes to all for 2025. Let's see if we can make lemonade from this box of lemons.