Such is the case with two residents of Hethersett who have decided to run this year's London Marathon - in Hethersett.
Sounds a potty thing to do but also something wonderful as well as the duo didn't want their chosen charities to lose out when the London event was called off.
So David Powles and Kate Gooding will be pounding the streets of Hethersett on Sunday October 4th in aid of two charities - Cancer Research UK and the Priscilla Bacon Hospice Appeal.
David and Kate are hoping that people will pop outside to cheer them on or even run with them as they complete a number of laps of the village to make the marathon distance of just over 26 miles. I will have full details of their marathon efforts in the September edition of Hethersett Herald which will be online tomorrow.
David admitted to me that it will be a tough ask. He last ran the London Marathon five years ago when he suffered the pain of severe cramp for many miles.
I still remember when I used to pound the streets of Hethersett as I trained for my one and only marathon - at Bungay in Suffolk around 1982. I remember the training vividly. I had been building up my training distances and on February 23rd achieved something like 18 miles. I hoped to push this up to around 21 miles before the actual event. But then fate took a hand.
Came home from the 18-miler feeling tired and a little stiff. Went to bed only to be woken up in the early hours of the morning by a wife in pain - or should I say in unexpected labour.
After the ubiquitous cup of tea, the pains didn't relent so it was off to the delivery floor at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital which in those days was in the centre of Norwich.
The staff remarked about how calm I was as a father to be. The truth was I was absolutely knackered after the 18 mile run and little sleep.
A few hours later our first son was born. "Would you like a cup of tea and some toast" the midwife enquired?
"Yes please," I responded.
"Not you, your wife," she replied.
I left shortly after to return home to make phone calls to tell family members the good news and then I can't remember whether I went into work or took the rest of the day off and got some sleep.
I do remember returning to the hospital in the evening to be approached by a nurse who said:
"You know your wife and son are both well."
"Yes," I replied with what must have been a rather quizzical look.
"Well it's just that Anne has had a number of visits from church people, men wearing dog collars. We wanted to re-assure you that everything is fine."
The dog collars belonged to a number of Methodist Ministers who had come to see the new arrival as Anne was a leading member of the church family in Hethersett at the time. The ministers would have been the Rev Trevor Hughes and the Rev Brian Dann from Hethersett and the Rev Al Loades from Beccles where we had previously lived. What a trio of wonderful human beings they were. Sadly only Brian is still with us.
Well everything went well with the baby but the marathon training regime went to pot - there seemed to be more important things.
I do remember that a circuit of the entire village came to about 2.4 miles. So David and Kate will be facing about 11 circuits. Doesn't sound a lot when you say it that way. I'm hoping not only to take photographs of their efforts but also to join them for a couple of miles - I reckon that's about all I can manage at the moment and I will have to go into training just to achieve that distance.
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Yesterday we went for another walk around the UEA Broad with coffee and a sausage roll in the Sainsbury Centre at the end. I quite fancied a sandwich but all they had was "filled breads" so that was out!!!!!
I have never been one for wearing shorts but during lockdown the trousers have by and large stayed in the wardrobe. Yesterday at the UEA I was just about the only male wearing shorts!
Came home and watched a mixture of grand prix racing and T20 cricket (incidentally I now understand that the Hethersett and Tas Valley v Swardeston Seconds trophy match called off due to rain yesterday will now take place next Saturday). That was after I had turned over from the First Night of the Proms programme where the pseuds were well and truly at it, eulogising over some horrible modern cacophony masquerading as music. There was a piece from a British composer Hannah Kendall entitled "Tuxedo: Vasco de Gama" before which Ms Kendall talked about the essence of the piece being to investigate identity. Presenters Katie Derham purred and preened and Stephen Fry tried to explain to us what a wonderful and important piece of music it was. I felt like throwing up as the piece in question was just a noisy mess. I think I would rather watch EastEnders and you know how much I hate that.
I hope you enjoy some of the photos taken around the UEA Broad. Once again they show my love of taking photographs of pieces of wood - perhaps I should write some music around that!
There is also a couple of photos of the newly cleaned up King's Head where the weeds have been removed and everything is looking much cleaner. No news as yet about the pub re-opening though.