Back in my younger years, I was a distinctly uncompetitive competitive cyclist. Back in those days, the 1990s, we used to wait for a month to find out the results of the Tour de France. There was no Sky Sport and the idea of live coverage of those sorts of races was science fiction. We used to pore over dog-eared copies of Cycling Weekly to find what our favourite European professionals had done the month before. This European centricity also extended as far as a love of the bicycles we rode or at least aspired to ride. Given the choice, most people would always go for a component set from ren ..read more

The great thing about running ultra marathons as opposed to running shorter running races is that it gives the participant a chance to go slow, stop often and eat lots of food. My running career started off with far too much excitement about running lots and lots of relatively speedy half marathons. Indeed, one year I set my PB marathon (a tad over 1:20) whilst running 120 odd halves in a single calendar year. As I’ve gotten older, however, I’ve begun to prefer much longer races. I’m now one of those annoying ultramarathon runners who tells people that running 100kms is actually easier than ru ..read more

Anyone who has read the book Born to Run will know the trend that was Barefoot Running. The writer spent some time watching an obscure Mexican tribe, the Tarahumara Indians, that does long-distance running races in the canyons of Mexico. The key takeaway from the book and the cult that surrounded it wasn’t about the simplicity of life, simple foods, a lack of modern entertainment or anything else lifestyle-related. Instead, a few individuals decided that the one takeaway from the Tarahumara was that we should all be running in bare feet. Don’t worry about the slight detail that the Tarahumara ..read more

I’ve written before about my inglorious career as an electrician. While I absolutely appreciate the practical and life skills that completing an apprenticeship gave me, it’s fair to say that electrician-ing wasn’t my sweet spot. I simply didn’t enjoy it and I have vivid memories of the downcast feelings I experienced on a Sunday afternoon as I realised I had to go to work the next day. So it’s no surprise that I spent much of my time during my apprenticeship engaged in anything other than work. Much of this engagement (and, it must be stated, also shared by a couple of my work buddies) involve ..read more

I’m forever amazed by the wisdom that one can find down at the local cafe. I’ve been going for fairly regular morning coffees to my local for decades now. Pro tip: if you’re in Christchurch and looking for the best non-pretentious coffee in town, check out C4 Coffee. Anyway, there are a group of individuals who I generally meet down there – we come from all walks of life and have lots of different experiences. But the one thing we have in common is that when we get together, we can sort out the world’s wrongs and put everything right again. One of our number is a true Renaissance man. He’s abl ..read more

It’s amazing the pearls of wisdom that one can gain in an unlikely setting. 35 years or so ago I completed an electrical apprenticeship and worked with many characters along the way. One of those characters, Grant, had a number of pithy sayings that we still talk about to this day. These “Grant-isms” are known for their simple logic and plain good sense. Grant was a guy into American cars, he had a Chevy and a Cadillac (and, despite loving all Caddys, he was utterly disdainful of anyone who would sing a song about a Pink one). As one would expect from someone who loved cars and driving, Grant ..read more

The other day, I was the first person on the scene of a nasty car crash on my commute home. Being a former paramedic, and a current firefighter obviously, I began helping those involved in the accident. I ended up being needed for an extended period and so,  an hour later I was kneeling down, working with a patient amongst a bunch of ambulance staff. For anyone who hasn’t had the opportunity to work within an emergency context, a funny thing happens. One’s focus narrows and becomes very refined. All the externalities become silent as you become hyper-focused on the situation in front of y ..read more

My lads are in their early twenties and, as such, many of their friends are finishing up university degrees and heading out into the real world. Maybe it’s a function of both the region they grew up in and the school they went to (pro tip for non-Canterbury folks, the first question anyone will ask you in Christchurch is for details of what school you went to, be sure to be ready with a good answer) but many of those peers are finishing accounting and law degrees and heading into graduate programmes with large professional service firms. I’ve been thinking about the journey they’re on since la ..read more

I’m a political mongrel. Over my life, I’ve voted across the political spectrum. Whenever I do those slightly dodgy-feeling political surveys, that always feel like a precursor to ads for erectile dysfunction meds or weight loss pills, I always end up being spread across the various spectra. I have tendencies that cover progressive and conservative making it really hard for the pollsters to work out which way I’ll swing in any election. One of the areas in which my views are inconsistent is that of economics. While I like the idea of the market economy, I also have a penchant for localism and ..read more

I often bemoan the fact that I’m getting older. Among my regular running mates, I’m generally the first to lay claim to being an old, sad, broken and washed-up runner. In reality, the truth is that despite waking up to various low-level aches and pains most mornings, I’m still pretty fit and can knock off a decent four or five-hour run without any real issues. That said, chronology is the only thing other than taxes that we can’t really argue with. Well, I guess with taxes we can always think about trying to find some dubious claim to being a charity and therefore avoid paying our dues. But th ..read more