School - Supertramp

I was asked to speak to the sixth form at my old school - King Edward VIth Grammar School for Boys in Stratford-upon-Avon last week.

1976 - I had hair back then...

The whole thing was a most interesting and rewarding experience. You see I’d been a bit apprehensive as it’s a long time since I’d been at school as a rather confused and somewhat non-conformist student in my later school years. I wondered what the 18-year-old Rory Coleman would have thought about how I’d used the 43 years on from leaving in 1980.

1979 - I'm not sure what I was thinking...

It was easy to wow the young minds with my running feats and numbers. The real message though was that it’s okay not to know what you want to do with your life but to live by a set of ideals where you endeavour to be the best version of yourself possible and in doing so, opportunity and direction will come knocking. Well, that's my story anyway.

 

The worrying panoramic school photos of 1976 and 1979 showed a very young-looking boy and then an uncomfortable looking seventeen-year-old with a weird attitude. The teachers still look fierce yet taught me respect and some engrained knowledge I still use to this day..

 

Over the years the school has grown but a lot of the rooms were the same and brought back warm memories of a distant time which I conveyed to my audience. You see I loved school.

 

Anyway, they seemed to enjoy the talk and I wondered if any of them would return like myself and revisit their adolescence and deliver a similar message in their future.

 

What would you tell your 18 year old self if you had the opportunity? I know what I’d be saying…

1,175 Marathons - 276 Ultras - 16 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records