The official slogan of the Olympics was to inspire a generation. This was emphasised by choosing young and promising athletes to carry the torch on the last leg of its journey. The Olympics may have been about inspiring my children and not me; I know I'm not part of the generation that the organisers were targeting, but I'm determined to be inspired by it!
In the otherwise pretty uninspirational film "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" Jim Broadbent's character laments that "we seem to have reached the age where life stops giving us things and starts taking them away." I think all of us who play sport start to think like that when we realise that we are now older than our favourite sports stars. We knew in our heart of hearts that we could never hope to compete with the best, but it's still depressing to realise the death of the dream.
Well I intend to rage against the dying of the light by training for a triathlon. Today for the first time in more than 20 years I attempted to swim lengths of a 25 metre pool. I struggled to complete two lengths. A triathlete needs to swim 1,500 metres.
Years ago I decided to train to run a marathon. I donned my trainers and tracksuit and jogged out of my front door. I had completed less than a mile when I had to stop. At this point an overweight middle-aged gentleman on his bike slowed down to grin at me, to taunt me for trying. I still think of him when the running gets tough. I was determined to be inspired by him. I completed my first marathon two years ago.
In terms of fractions, swimming 50 metres when your goal is to swim 1,500 metres is similar to running less than a mile when your goal is run 26.2 miles (and if you've ever run the Brathay Marathon, you'll know that you have to respect that last 0.2!). The journey to the highest mountain starts with a single step and If I can sort out my breathing then I'll have reached base camp.
