Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Erica Strange Has A Lot To Answer For Let Me Tell Ya!

Obviously no running of any sort thanks to mother natures almost two feet of snow Saturday,I hadn't planned to trek down to Landover to PGI for Sundays meet anyway but now I'm well and truly up shits creek w/out said paddle.
No track around is habitable I should imagine,I had scheduled a workout at Temple's track today b4 the snow and Lower Merion on Thursday....just wishful thinking now.
Sidewalks are seldom an option and that's w/out a ton of snow and ice on them,Chuck sent an email that one of the guys on our b relay turned an ankle Sunday which puts the b relay in jeopardy now this Sunday at The Armory.
I guess the best I can ask for is to stay shape mentally,stick to my healthy regime of nutrition and maybe throw in some sit ups,ab crunches and push ups to stay "in the zone" b4 we attempt to rewrite the history books Sunday afternoon.

Away from running I've surprised myself at how well I've handled "the holidays"thus far this year,seldom my favourite time of year ever somehow thanks to some "Alfie Moon" mindset I've been able to keep the blues,the blahs and more importantly the ghosts of xmas past at arms lenght this year.
Sunday would've been Erica and I's 23rd wedding anniversary,our marriage lasted two years and too often in the past 21 years I've retreated into a defensive shell leading upto our Dec 20th wedding anniversary and Jan 5th anniversary of when we first met some two years earlier.
It's w/ no sense of irony then that the past few days and I suspect the next few weeks will slip by w/out rancor thanks to another Erica,Erica Strange.

A few Saturdays ago I found myself at home one afternoon flicking thro the channels looking for something other than college football and stumbled upon reruns of "Gilmore Girls" an old favourite of mine now being reaired on Soapnet.
Following ''Gilmore Girls" came "Being Erica" a Canadian show about a regular women Erica Strange who thanks to her therapist could go back to her past and alter the events that in her mind shaped her present...............it got me to thinking.........never a good thing but hey!
I spent sometime thinking what would I change from my past?my drinking for one,and to a degree meeting Erica in Jan 85 and then this weekend it hit me.
Xmas Eve 04 four of us from work hit a pub at lunchtime to celebrate the holidays,me my brother,Lynn and the girl of my dreams Jean.
Long story short over a few pints of "Dutch Courage"I somehow plucked up the nerve to ask Jean out,it's only taken weeks/months and yes I hijacked Xmas as a valid excuse to tell her how I felt,I still remember the red rose I gave her in an empty tin foil box covered in xmas wrapping paper,anywho,she said yes.............sadly she never showed up that nite,12 nites later I met Erica for the first time and the rest as they say is history....
SO my "Being Erica" moment if I had a therapist like "Dr Tom" would be to go back to Xmas Eve 84 only this time Jean would show up,who knows how different my life might've been if that's the path my life would've gone instead of meeting Erica on Jan 5th 85 and setting off a chain reaction that lead me to leaving London in October 87 for Philly.

Life is full of these "what if's" I accept that but sometimes it's ok to step outside the parameters of your life and question the time honoured "if only",Jean Whittle if you're still out there I care about you still to this day,and even though I quit drinking 21 years ago I'd still love to meet you for that drink we never managed Xmas Eve 25 years ago.
Merry Xmas.

5 comments:

Rob said...

Kevin,

A new computer on my part meant that I had missed your blog for a while. I just read in a blog for this past fall where you refered to your "former coach." Are you self coached now?

Rob

BTW, Merry Christmas

kevin f forde said...

Rob,
merry xmas to you too.
Yes I'm self coached now,I learnt alot from my former coach in almost three years but we parted company during my achilles injury and since returning to training in late July I've coached myself,time will tell if that works out for me.

Rob said...

Kevin,

Thanks for the response, I hope I didn't come across as "nosy" but as a fellow mid-distance runner (who would love to be as good as you are)I was curious. When I got back from my last tour of duty in Iraq and decided to take up competitive racing again, I coached myself for about a year before hiring a coach. I guy out in CA. I actually have a degree in coaching track (from another life time ago, and before going into the military coached a junior olympic club), but found that having the "courage" (not sure that is the right word but can't think of a better one) to follow a plan that I created was difficult. Funny thing is, I would almost say that the relationship between my coach and I is that of head coach and assistant coach. In the sense that while he writes the overall program (like a head coach), I end up (like an assistant coach) making adjustments for day to day events like working late or the weather (dealing with blizzards right now).

Again, I was just curious how you are managing it.

Happy New Year,

Rob

kevin f forde said...

Rob,
was only too happy to answer your question,please don't feel you were being intrusive.
There's much to be said for having a coach,mine was good helping me taper b4 major races and helping me w/ stuff like that,but I kind of know what to do now,so it's not like I need him to tell me how to do it again.
Like all coach/athlete relationships you won't always see eye to eye,did Seb and Peter Coe?Steve Ovett and Harry Wilson?Eamonn and Marcus w/ Jumbo?hell no but all of them helped make those guys world class but I don't doubt there were days out on the Main Line when Eamonn though"feck off"when Jumbo told him certain things.
Like I said having a coach can be great,but it's not always the be all and end all for a runner.

me said...

perhaps it would have all turned out exactly the same regardless of what happened that christmas eve. perhaps you would still be in london, stuck in whatever life that became and never had come to the USA at all. perhaps you would not be running at all! perhaps it was all meant to be. going back to change things does not always work out for the best. perhaps it was just fate.