I’ve written about Horst Milde and his impact on the running community in Berlin, then Germany, then across the world a couple of times in the past. Yet, though I have known him and occasionally worked with him over 25 years, I was unaware of the full extent of his impact on running in […]
Any runner will tell you that training doesn’t just improve bodily fitness, it helps balance the mind as well. Physical exercise produces endorphins, the feel-good hormones which, in chemical terms are peptides which activate the body’s opiate receptors, causing an analgesic (calming) effect. Which is why, in plain English you feel so good after […]
The potential Olympic reinstatement of Russia by the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) from a suspension occasioned by the revelation of wholesale doping at the Sochi Olympics coincides uncomfortably with the 30th anniversary of the busting of Ben Johnson following the Olympic men’s 100 metres in Seoul. State sponsored doping meets free market enterprise doping, […]
Dana Zátopková is 96 years old today; her celebrated husband, Emil Zátopek would have been 96 too, since by coincidence they were born on the same day, just a few hours and a hundred kilometres or so apart. Her status as an elder stateswoman of the sport seems to contrast with her beginnings; because […]
Equilibrium is restored. Eliud Kipchoge, a man who can already lay claim to being the greatest male marathon runner in history underlined that status by finally adding the kudos of world record holder to his curriculum vitae. In the latest (and greatest?) of a string of world records on the race track that is […]
Anyone who knows anything at all about Dublin, even if they’ve never set foot in that stout-soaked city, will know that the main drag is called O’Connell Street. Named after Daniel O’Connell, the legendary 19th century campaigner for political and religious freedom, the street strikes north from O’Connell Bridge (over the River Liffey), past […]