999 - Going for the One

Too much choice...

Well I’m sure be you’ll be a lot happier when I’ve stopped droning on here about passing my 1000th marathon milestone mark. Anyway, I’m going to milk the feat one more time today, as yesterday’s 999^th Wolverhampton Marathon gave me nearly five hours to consider my album choice and direction for today’s ditty.

Being my 999^th an obvious choice would have been ‘999’ the debut album from the Punk Band  of the same name but to be honest it was lame at the time and now sounds very dated now. Being more of a ‘Prog-Rock’ kinda guy there is of course ‘Going for the One’ from the same era and from the very pompous band, ‘Yes’ a much more positive choice but I'm still not convinced. 

So in a blog first, I've chosen both.

I’m sure you will be able to come up with lots of suggestions of Albums, Tracks and Lyrics that might accompany me around the last 26.2 miles of my marathon journey and answers on a postcard would be most welcome.

These two albums however, really got me thinking though about the complete spectrum of choice there is out there in everything we do, even more so than the heady days of 40 years past when I was 15. Back then we were governed by just three TV Channels of propaganda. We lived in a transistorised analogue world of fuzzy black and white portable pictures and music that wowed, fluttered and hissed. Everything was brown and made of plastic, yet we seemed happy with our limited choice – Well that’s how the youth of today would see it. 

For instance, none of my children will ever know what it’s like to have grown up without a mobile phone. My littlest ones are already know how to swipe and access what their preferred TV Programmes on YouTube and Amazon Prime. It's a shame they won't know Blue Peter...

It's also a shame that with choice we are becoming a nation of ‘Fitness Channel Hoppers’. Serial ‘Bucket Listers’ that will take on the Marathon des Sables, UTMB, Cross Channel Swims and Atlantic Rows to differing levels of success and failure. Let’s face it, running the MdS doesn’t make you ULTRA-marathon Runner as the recent drop outs from the utterly brutal UTMB underlines.

Years and years of training, running marathons, ultras, plus buckets of determination and endurance will do that for you. 

Setting out on my marathon journey in 2017, would deliver different results to those I’ve made since 1994 and I feel I’ve benefitted greatly by being ahead of the pack in what I’ve been able to achieve in 999 journeys of 26.2 miles or more.

Hopefully for the masses, the amount of choice will narrow in the future and folk will be happier to live simpler lives where buying a coffee will be a simple choice of Black or White rather than the thousands of combinations that a 'Costa' or ‘Starbucks’ has to offer.

It would make ‘Going for the One’ a whole lot easier...

Rory Coleman - 999 Marathons - 244 Ultras - 14 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,643 Days' Alcohol Free - 491 Days' post GBS

Location: Cardiff, Wales.