Brexit, VAR and good sessions

I've managed to get through three full posts without mentioning Brexit, but it couldn't last a fourth.  Does anyone actually know where this is going to end up?  Our Prime Minister evidently doesn't, nor indeed any of the other political leaders.  On Thursday morning I'm going to a Brexit seminar in our office to hear Andy Maciver's thoughts on it all.  We work closely with Andy and he is a first class, hugely entertaining speaker, as well as one of Scotland's top political analysts; you may have seen him on various Scottish news outlets.  I doubt Andy knows either but it will be fascinating to hear his views on the various scenarios, and how they will affect the political environment here in Scotland.  Once I find out what's happening I'll let you all know.

Almost as contentious as Brexit this week has been VAR.  For those who do not follow football, VAR stands for 'video assistant referee' and has been brought in to the English Premier League to reduce the number of errors made.  Unfortunately it is not working very well.  Brighton were awarded a penalty in their game against Everton which baffled everyone except the people who were operating VAR.  The penalty was awarded when Brighton were 2-1 down, and helped them to go on and win 3-2.  I've seen the incident about six time and still don't know why it was given, and I used to be a referee, albeit in the Ayrshire Amateur League rather than English Premier League.  Using video evidence to review decisions seems to be working fine in the Champions League, and it has worked very well in rugby for a few years, so perhaps the issues lie with the way the English Premier League is using the technology, rather than with the technology itself.  An analogy for life itself, perhaps.

Today is Tuesday which means it is intervals night at the Meadows.  I coach this session each week at 6.30pm for my club, Harmeny AC, with normally between 5 and 15 runners coming along.  I don't tell anyone what the specific session is going to be until we are ready to start - I simply tell them it will be 'good'.  I have still to decide what tonight's 'good' session will be, but as we are now in to the darker winter nights I will be reminding the group of the old running adage 'winter miles make summer smiles'.  Not sure they will be thanking me for that wisdom after half an hour of running at close to threshold pace, but I'm sure they will in the long run (no pun intended, of course...)

Spring forward, fall back

The first Monday since the clocks have changed.  Lighter in the morning today, but that won't last and soon it will be dark going to work in the morning, dark coming home at night, and a poor quality light for most of the rest of the time.  As you can probably guess I don't like this time of year.  November and December are a struggle.  I don't mind January; the days start getting longer again, a new year with new aspirations.  But we need to get there first.  Part of my strategy is to try and get out at lunchtime every day, recognising how much I need that daylight.  It will be harder to do that as I'm not running, but important I make the effort.  I'll use this post as a reminder.

In other news: we have completed our merger at work and have 17 new colleagues joining us today in our Edinburgh office.  We signed the final paperwork on Friday evening and I look forward to welcoming them all this morning.  Also, the 2020 West Highland Way Race opens for entries on Thursday.  I need to do a few final pieces of testing and we should be there.  Keep your eye out for a couple of interesting announcements.

Congratulations to England

Congratulations to the English rugby team for an excellent performance and win this morning against New Zealand.  I watched the first half on television and though England completely controlled it, then listened to the second half on the radio.  It may surprise some to hear, but I actually enjoy seeing demonstrations of positive English nationalism, and the English rugby supporters certainly embrace that.  Too often we see United Kingdom / England used interchangeably and in the wrong context, which I find hugely frustrating.  So well done to England and to all the English supporters.  I hope you enjoy your celebrations.  England will start as favourites in the final regardless of whether their opponents are Wales or South Africa.  I hope it is Wales - what a final that would be.

A couple of observations on rugby more generally.  First of all, I am fed up with the Haka and think I is time for the rugby authorities to say enough is enough.  It was fine when rugby was an amateur sport, but in the professional era it looks completely disrespectful.  Imagine another team being allowed to jump up and down and shout aggressively at their opponents before the start of the game?  I don't think so.  Time for it to go.  Secondly, we shouldn't forget that Scotland completely outclassed England at Murrayfield in the Six Nations only 20 months ago.  The fact England have improved so much since then, and that Scotland have deteriorated so much, is something we should be asking serious questions about.  We have gone considerably backwards in that time.  Why has it gone so wrong?  Here's a question: if we had a coach like Warren Gatland or Eddie Jones, could Scotland be in the semi finals of the world cup?  I think we might, but we'll never know.

Finally I'm not long back from Cumbernauld where I watched a wonderful display of high quality cross country running at the Lindsays National Cross Country relay championships.  It was great to see athletes of the calibre of Callum Hawkins, Andy Douglas, Sol Sweeney, Ali Hay and many other show their talents.  I have to admit I felt very old presenting the Edinburgh University ladies team with their medals after their win.  Hopefully I'll be back again running at these events, and one of the joys of these events is the way that people of any ability can take part, but it was a reminder that my best days of running were quite a long time ago.

Lions, gazelles, and great role models

‘Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.’

This is not a new quote, but I came across it again today. Unfortunately at the moment I am neither a lion nor a gazelle. I am injured. I have a problem with my sciatic nerve, which is causing my varying degrees of pain in my left leg and, at the moment, in my left calf. Being injured 'sucks', as today's youth would say. Where running is good for managing one's mental health, injury has the opposite effect. Combine that lack of running with regularly interrupted sleep, caused by the pain, and it is fair to say I have not been my usual cheery self for the last couple of weeks.  I have a lot of sympathy for my wife and my work colleagues who have had to put up with me.

But there is a positive.  Tomorrow is the Lindsays National Cross Country Relay Championships, at Cumbernauld.  My injury means I cannot run.  That in turn means that a) I will be able to enjoy the day in my dual roles as Chair and representative of the title sponsor without the pressure of racing, and b)  I won't get lapped by Callum Hawkins, who is making a very welcome re-appearance at the event.  Isn't it wonderful to have an athlete who was 4th in the recent world championship marathon taking part in this?  It will inspire not only the many youngsters taking part in the junior races, but also everyone else, who will undoubtedly be thrilled to run in the same race as one of the world's top distance runners.  Last week Andy Butchart ran in the East League cross country at Stirling, with his girlfriend Lynsey Sharp watching.  They spent a significant amount of time afterwards getting their photo taken with some of the junior athletes, which was so good to see.  Laura Muir and Jake Wightman have taken part in recent Scottish cross country championships too.  We are lucky to have such great role models in Scotland.