2011 Streak 107/365: Bike maintenance and the London Marathon

2011 Streak 107/365: Walk - 1 mile, time - 20 min, Weather - blue skies 

Absolute minimum distance today because of all sorts of other things.

It began with the London Marathon. I have to watch this - it is one of the rules, even if I know it wastes a heap of time. I always start by saying I will just watch a little bit to get a flavour of the spectacle  and reconnect with the mass of enthusiasm, endeavour and virtue displayed by so many road runners. Then I start to be drawn into the races, watching for those who look easy and those about to crack, marvelling at how they can keep going at a speed that I would feel was sprinting. Time then passes.

This year the both men's and women's race were brilliant, with outstanding winners who both dramatically raced away from the other leaders with a sustained increase in pace. Suddenly they were on their own and you know their victory was inevitable. That is the fascination of long distance races: they are fluid and full of possibilities for a group of runners until suddenly someone makes a move and you know that the outcome is set.

One of the other pleasures is to watch the styles of the top runners. Both the winners looked easy and economical but the same could not be said for everybody else. I was particularly fascinated by our second woman, Louise Damen, who I would have worried for if I had seen her running round our park.Her elbows were out to the side, she crouched as if she were resting on an invisible stool and her feet seemed to slap the ground; and was she thin, painfully stick insect thin. But she is a top runner. It only goes to show that you do not have to have a copybook style and there is not one form that works. In fact everybody moved slightly differently.

The London Marathon is a great place to observe running form.

After that the afternoon was taken up with bicycle maintenance. Something I had been promising to do for too long. T here is a certain contentment to be had from taking things apart then putting the back together both cleaner and in better working order.

If there are two things I would recommend to anybody who has a bike they are a works stand and foot pump. They make maintenance an awful lot easier.

Today's photo is another in the series of this year's fruit blossom. It is a blueberry.