A Facebook page – called ‘Jonny Muir – Books’ – has been launched to coincide with the publication of Isles at the Edge of the Sea next week. It seems the done thing. Please click on the link to the right to ‘like’ the aforementioned page. I will be very grateful. Alternatively, follow this link.
Isles at the Edge of the Sea – the Edinburgh launch
I will be speaking about my new book, Isles at the Edge of the Sea, at Blackwell’s book shop in Edinburgh on June 2. The event runs from 6.30-8pm. Please follow this Facebook link for further details; please come along. Now I just need to think of something to say… …this helps: calm, clear waters…
Not a PB
It’s now three weeks since London. I still haven’t recovered from the effort of that marathon. Not even close. I attempted to kid myself that I had – by taking part in my local 5k park run in Brockwell Park today. The race mirrored my post-marathon return to running: slow, stuttering and a little erratic. After…
Countdown to publication
The publication of Isles at the Edge of the Sea is now just days away. These are exciting times. There are few more thrilling days for an author than these – when the anticipation of seeing a year of work come to fruition mingles with hopes and fears about the reception the book might receive. To get the ball rolling, here…
Botley Hill
I’ve no desire to climb all the Marilyns – UK hills and mountains with a drop of at least 150 metres on all sides, meaning summits of the ilk of Cairn Gorm, Sca Fell and Carnedd Dafydd are excluded. Besides, there’s more than 1500 of them. It is a list for the super-devoted and the ultra-motivated only. Two…
Messing about on the river
Books of the ilk of Three Men in a Boat, which everyone knows, and Boogie up the River, lesser-known but a brilliantly-written account of Mark Wallington’s attempt to row to the source of the Thames, have romanticised the notion of river travel. My occasional longings for such an expedition were realised today. Cycling to Windsor, I met two…
2.50.23
Marathons are cruel. They slowly but surely destroy participants, emotionally and physically. They wear down the mind, eat away at thoughts, until pre-race aspirations, hope, motivations are smashed. All that is left is a desire for this suffering to be over, and quickly. They wear down the body, finding little niggles that become groaning aches, before…
When time is all that matters
There was an advert – for Lucozade, I think – at Custom House, the DLR station for ExCel, that read: ‘ When all you think about for 3,29 is 3,29.’ What runner could not empathise with that? There lies a runner’s obsession: time. Tsegaye Kebede wants to break the world record tomorrow, dipping under 2,04 in the process….
Bicycles, Brighton and origami canoes
Origami – the traditional Japanese art of folding paper – has never appealed to me. That was until someone came up with the idea of an origami canoe, although made of plastic, not paper (that would be disastrous). Tom and I cycled to Brighton, where the canoes are being developed, to see if it really…
Body falling apart
I knocked out 222 miles in February, 13 fewer than January (a month that was, however, three days longer). As you can see, I’ve become pedantic about mileage. My London Marathon training of years gone by has traditionally flagged in February, my efforts plagued by injury or plunging motivation. Not this year, it seems. Not so far. With the marathon now six-and-a-half…
Roding Valley half-marathon
There are plenty of pre-London Marathon half-marathons to test one’s mettle: Bath, Brighton, Fleet, Reading, Silverstone. Unfortunately, they are/were all fully subscribed. Hence I found myself in Essex today, taking part in the 29th annual edition of the Roding Valley half-marathon. After running a short loop around Woodford, we commenced a long loop, with the…
Heights of Madness 