This page is designed as a bit of fun .... had a fall or injury, laughed at someone else's expense whilst on a training run or indeed on a social event (well, we have lots of those!) then let me know. Submit your photos, stories, jokes others mis-fortunes to nicki.harris01@btinternet.com.

The Idea for this page came from Andrey Starcevic.

On the way to the London Marathon ... !	Dancing in the rain ... !
Kingham ... awash with rain or alcohol ...!?	Looking good, Mike ... !
'Parky Falls'	Nicki's Knee

Superman and Me

Thought I would get the story in before anyone else for the injuries page.

 While running on Thursday, during an effort session, some of you may have heard the reports of a sudden lamppost related injury, well this is the true story of that fateful night as seen through the eyes of the main character.

As we came to the penultimate session  we had to complete a one minute effort, “easy” I hear you say, well our group was quite large this night and with cries of “get off the road, stay on the path” from the group leader we were all crowded into an area the size of a mini cooper.

As I decided to put on a burst of speed and separate myself from the pack I was nervous about the closeness of numerous legs and feet all trying to go faster. With my head down (watching feet) and my arms pumping (to go faster) I saw a gap and opted to go for it and break free. Suddenly up ahead the bodies parted (in the best Moses and water tradition) and I saw my arch nemesis ‘The Lamppost’ ahead. Trying to swerve around the said object I struck it a glancing blow.

The result, I was winded and hit the ground very quickly, there was a jumble of other bodies and luckily most got off with minor injuries. I suffered internal bruising to the rib cage and a broken watch, not a Garmin to save the cries of woe from all you gadget runners.

The lessons learnt are many but I will summarise:

         1. When running in groups use the keep left rule and don’t bunch.
2. It doesn’t matter how fast you run there is always someone faster behind you.
3. Don’t look down, look up; or at least split your attention equally between both.
4. Lampposts are not frangible and they will always win the argument against your soft pink body.

I would finally like to thank Andrey Starcevic, Steve Borondy, Pete Diamond and Bobby Holding, and anyone else I have missed in my post (no pun intended) traumatic daze.

 Ian Rogers

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