I’ve got a blog and I’m not afraid to use it!

This blog has been here for a wee while but I never really considered putting on regular posts but these last couple of weeks I’ve taken comfort from the posts of other bloggers and the race forum, and I’ve always enjoyed reading what other runners are up to, so I decided to add my ramblings to mix.

This past fortnight has been so hard dealing with at first denial and then slow acceptance that Dario will no longer be with us, but all of us touched by his enthusiasm and encouragement will never lose his gift.

At the beginning of May I’d emailed Dario about this years WHW details and we got talking about another wee race I have ahead of me. I wrote: “It is a bit strange for me to be considering life after the WHW, but I think I had a good run at Perth off the back of the WHW so I'm not changing a winning tactic, I still have a wee smile to myself when I think "Fun runner in a Scottish Vest" but I'm immensely proud that I have the chance to run for Scotland and I get a wee lump in my throat at the thought. I have changed my training slightly from my usual, I'm not particularly faster but I am stronger and my goal is erm.. not sure if I want to reveal it... but between you and me I'm aiming high, 200km is a nice round figure, maybe beyond me but only 13km further than I got at Perth.”

Dario’s reply:
'fun runner' huh, in my eyes you have always been a star. and i was bursting with pride for you in Perth when you qualified. as for 200 k, you got to have targets, without them you would never have made it to ft william all those years ago. you aim for it, you never know what you might get.

I’m so glad I never deleted that email, what is so special about Dario’s reply is that he had words like these for everyone. So you now know my goal for Keswick and who I’m doing it for.