Another Word on Running

I can’t resist having another quick word on running. Please don’t think I’m paranoid or anything – well, actually I am, but like most paranoia it makes me want to collect any evidence to feed my point of view.

I am a fan of most things crime, detective and murder, and I was watching NCIS on the box. I like it for the content but also for the fact that David McCallum plays the medical examiner, Dr Donald “Ducky” Mallard in the series.

I have been a fan of David since, as an innocent young teenager, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. hit the screens and David, playing agent Illya Kuryakin, became a sex symbol for my generation.

Getting to watch the show required a little deviousness on my part. My parents were not fans of anything “so foolish and silly”. However, my grandmother, Nana, lived across the road and loved having me keeping her company of an evening.

So, every Thursday evening – I’m almost sure it was Thursday - straight after the dinner dishes were washed, dried and put away, I would head over to Nana’s. She would be already tuned to the correct channel and had the Nuttall’s Mintoes ready – a lollie that tasted of a combination of mint and butter. It was very hard, then got chewy – a real filling remover.

First we would watch Top of the Pops, then came Man From U.N.C.L.E. I always felt that maybe I was using her to get my way but looking back I think she really enjoyed our TV time together and we would spend some time afterwards discussing the programme and lots of other things. She really seemed to understand my attraction for David – did she actually fancy him too?

A few years after her death I found out that she had a secret vice. She was an ardent snooker fan. Whenever there was a snooker game on the TV she would lock the door and enjoy the programme very noisily, according to the neighbours. Maybe I have a lot of her in me?

Anyway, back to the original idea. (Someone once told me that I was a born writer as I cannot tell a story without giving all the connections and the way it is important to me – evidenced by this blog.)

Back to the point for the second time. In one of the NCIS episodes Ducky gives a dissertation about why people were never meant to run other than for short emergency bursts. The action of pounding the pavements or other surfaces puts undue stress on leg muscles, bones, knees, hips, and many other parts of the body. If I could have got hold of him I would have kissed him.

I can now do my other forms of exercise – walking, Fifties Forwards’ exercises and theatre work, it’s actually very energetic – and feel quite saint-like that I am doing what my body was made for and leave the evils of running to those that enjoy them. Okay - this picture is really wishful thinking!