Fight from the Inside - Taylor

Lyric:- 'You can't win with your hands tied' - Taylor

Song Choice:- My favourite track from Queen's 1977 'News of the World' album, that only peaked at number 4 in the charts, how about that? It's a Roger Taylor special, this one, with him writing, singing, drumming and playing guitars on the track. Take a listen here for yourself and see what you've been missing.

And it's the 'fight' that I'm interested in for today's blog as my question to you today is how you cope with situations you find yourself in every day of your life? You are probably aware of the 'Fight or Flight Response'. During the reaction, the intensity of emotion that is brought on by the stimulus will also determine the nature and intensity of the behavioural response. Individuals with higher levels of emotional reactivity may be prone to anxiety and aggression, and I'm sure we've all witnessed such 'Flight or Flight' occurrences in the past. 

Anyway, I believe there's a middle ground which is far more acceptable all round which is 'Acceptance' - a mental state that's so hard to find, yet so much more powerful that either 'Fight' or 'Flight' can ever be in my opinion. 'Acceptance' is truly powerful in fact, as I find  confrontation and surrender such negative emotions and a waste of my energy. How much time, energy and money could be saved if folk just used a little more common sense? 

Returning to the 'Morello Clinic' yesterday, scene of my own SIDP acceptance realisation, it just hammered the point home to me that a lot of the time if we know where we stand and are honest with ourselves, a far better outcome ensues. I'm living proof of that...

How many things are you fighting or running away from, right now?

Makes you think eh? Right from the inside...

Rory Coleman - 976 Marathons - 241 Ultras

13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records - 8284 Days' Alcohol Free.

Location: Pembroke Road, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Fall Over - Banks

Lyric:- 'I gave up my pride'

As my recovery progresses, lots of folk have asked me what the hardest/worst part of having SIDP. Was it the paralysis, the pain, the uncertainty...Nope, for me it was the fear of falling over.

It's a very unusual feeling I can tell you because in my case my legs would buckle beneath me at literally any moment. It took over my whole body and mind. After three such occasions where I fell, one of them being a perfect 'Del Boy' type of fall backwards where I cut my head wide open scaring my friend Jeff Smith to death - I finally scared myself to death too.

That fear was a real bugger to get rid of and for well over a couple of months of recovery any standing or walking even on a frame or with crutches was accompanied by an underlying feeling of biting the dust, big time. It's so easy to break a bone or rupture ligaments with SIDP you see.

As you recover though, then suddenly, the fear goes...The negative thoughts disappear and standing upright is dead east again. My confidence in staying upright has been fully restored, I'm glad to say.

The human mind, is an amazing thing. I'm not sure if my reaction was a kind of auto-safety one or simple self defence, but it certainly put a massive limitation on my world.

But then everyone has their own self-imposed limits don't they? And if your not careful, it's really easy to get frightened of the simplest thing.

Being able to overcome those fears? Well that's the tricky part. Being open to change? Well that's the bit you can work on as it's amazing how soon things that once seemed a massive problem, can disappear.

I'm still very much 'work in progress' but then we all are and maybe it's a good day to look at your own fear(s) and see if you can leave some of them behind you today.

Don't give up your PRIDE.

More tomorrow.

Rory Coleman - 976 Marathons - 241 Ultras

13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records - 8283 Days' Alcohol Free.

Location: Pembroke Road, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Don't Look Back - Boston

Look in the Mirror...

Lyric:- Don't look back a new day is breakin', it's been too long since I felt this way. I don't mind where I get taken the road is callin' today is the day - Scholz

Song choice:- A monumental song from the 'King of Multracking Harmonies', Tom Scholz. How   singer Brad Delp ever hit those high notes, well we'll never know God rest his soul, but I expect a pair of pliers twisting his undercarriage might well have used! It's a bloody awesome song and have a listen if you've never heard it before or forgotten just how good it is.

Anyway, like Delp dings, who's looking back? I'm not as IT'S HISTORY...and today's the day, isn't it?

In fact, every day's the day from now on as far as I'm concerned and yes it's far too easy to say that life's too short - but it is and that's what's so darned scary. Is it time to give your life an overhaul? Have you taken a good hard look in the mirror recently?

Tell me, is Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie looking back at you? Or rather is it Victor Meldrew or his long suffering wife Margaret? With my red-framed rose tinted spectacles firmly on I see a young Mr Coleman looking back without a great hair or wrinkle in sight. In the cold light of day, I see a very lucky 54 year old man with his life-experiences etched deeply into his face and I'm cool with that. I get it completely and how I look is a direct reflection of what I've done with my life so far. Sure smoking, drinking and playing hard in the 80's didn't help but hey, it made me the man I am today and why beat myself up.

And that's what matters.

I'm amazed at how much people beat themselves up over what's been and passed them by - sometimes for most of their adult life, rather than drawing a line and moving on. Now, I know that isn't easy to do but it can be done and the peace that it delivers in return is just peachy - I know.

You can make a difference. What I say is take off the blinkers for once, and let the road take you somewhere new for once. Please give it a go otherwise you'll never know what could have been and don't listen to anyone else as it's none of their business, it's yours.

More tomorrow.

Rory Coleman

976 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records

8282 Days' SOBER

www.RoryColeman.co.uk

Nothing Else Matters - Metallica

Lyrics:- 'Couldn't be much more from the heart'.

Song Choice:- I've finally left hospital but I'm not one for celebrating, especially as I no longer drink. However I do like to return to songs that make me glad to be alive to gee myself up when it's time to step up my game. If you know me, you'll know how important the 20th April 1992 was in my history. Luckily YouTube lets me re-live it whenever I want, and it's kinda great ain't it?

Got me thinking though...If you had an video file of your own life, in its entirety, where would you rewind to first to recheck yourself out, relive or uncock up some of the stuff you'd like to change.

You could see yourself being born...hmm that feels kinda weird but you could see yourself as you really were at any age, not as you remember perhaps.

You could relive your first day at school or a special occasion. You could also see what was going on around you in slow-mo and freeze-frame in 4K colour, so you could see what was actually going on in the background.

For those of you who follow Grand Designs on a weekday evening, Kevin McCloud already has this option, well in a way. He's less hairy and slightly more plump as the series' progresses. Poor chap is usually surrounded by too much steel, glass and morons to see his own ageing but I'm sure you get the gist.

It happened to me when I saw some film of myself on Blue Peter in 2009. I look a generation younger!

Anyway, I'm already lost as to where I'd go first. There's just too much choice.

Maybe you'd like a fast forward, time-travel button on YouTube as well so you could avoid making costly life mistakes rather than having the option to change a few cock-ups retrospectively.

That would come in bloody handy. But then again would it?

Do we need to relive stuff or know what's ahead or make the most of it whilst it's here and live in the moment?

What do you think?

Rory Coleman - 976 Marathons - 241 Ultras

13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records - 8280 Days' Alcohol Free.

Location: Pembroke Road, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Park Life - Blur

Lyric:- And it's not about you joggers who go round and round and round

Now it's not very often that I say at 7:30am on a Saturday, 'Right let's go and do parkrun'. But then again, I'd probably been building up to it for most of the week, if I'm being honest, as I wanted to mark my hospital discharge with some kind of feat.

Officially, that's Monday and I didn't quite know what to expect from this mornings crusade. It turned out to be a crusade too or a definite baptism of fire as the 5kms was ten times further than I'd ever run since I've had Guillain Barre Syndrome, these past five months.

What started off with a very modest walk with Lady C and the boys in a buggy, soon became a case of, 'I'm not coming bloody last' and although it was far from pretty, I jogged as far and as fast as my legs would safely take me, until I slowed to my walking speed.

700 runners starting to come back past me after 1km on the pan-handled course, down here in Cardiff, made a huge fuss of me and the encouragement was an undeniable accelerant to the emotion burning inside of me. Wow, I was in floods of tears...

Luckily, no one saw them, only those of my amazingly supportive wife as I sprinted (that's a complete over-exaggeration) those last 100 metres like my life depended on them.

I suppose in a way they do. It's shown me how much hard work I've been prepared to put in to getting back on the road for MdS2017 and that 1,000th marathon, the majority of which has been of my own volition. More importantly though to see just how hard being normal is, when it's really obvious there's still a long, long to way.

Then beauty was though, I was encouraged to feel normal by the other 730 folk there this morning and that is where parkrun really exceeds. I'll be back next week to make inroads intoto my 729th position and now 58:06pw.

Will you?

Rory Coleman - 976 Marathons - 241 Ultras
13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records - 8277 Days' Alcohol Free
The UK's Leading ULTRA-Marathon Coach.

Run Like Hell - The Pink Floyd

Lyric:- 'And your hungry heart' - Waters

Song Choice:- Well more of a Jog like Hell if I'm being honest here and I managed about 500 metres across Llandaff Fields yesterday so I'm really pleased with my progress this week. I'm now walking at least 6 miles a day, every day.

Anyway, the Big News is that I've been discharged from Rookwood Hospital and I'm now getting back into the heady world of being Rory Coleman again. Whether that's a good thing, who knows. The question is, can I improve on my old self and raise my game? 

Well of course I can, as there is nothing worse than being mediocre in my book and that's something I'm definitely going to work at from now on.

As for running? The 500 metres felt like a running a marathon on some very strange plasticine legs but I quickly felt what I've been missing these past few months and I'll gradually build up my running fitness like I did back in 1994.

A fresh start is always a good thing I've found and today has already provided me with a great achievement as I walked home from hospital this morning.

Not many folk can say that...

What's been the standout part of your day today.

Rory Coleman - 976 Marathons - 241 Ultras

13 Marathon des Sables - 9 Guinness World Records - 8276 Days' Alcohol Free.

Location: Pembroke Road, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Forever Autumn - Justin Hayward

Song Choice:- The Weatherman on BBC Breakfast TV announced that today officially marked the start of Autumn. 

Whatever happened to the Autumn Equinox and the 23rd September I ask? As that's when the Earth's axis, which is always pitched at 23.4 degrees, is perfectly placed to give us 12 hours of equal day and night and is actually when the REAL Autumn starts. In essence, this gives us another 22 days of Summer to enjoy.

Let's face it, we don't get a lot of Summer to enjoy it in the first place so don't cut out arguably the best part of it. September is nearly always sunny I've found.

I think it's becoming a national institution to look at things in a negative way. So for f@ck's sake folk, lets lighten up. Let's enjoy this next three weeks whilst we can before the nights draw in, the leaves go rusty and we all have to start dressing for the Arctic.

Have a real think what you can do in the next three to brighten your mood and make you shine again.

I'm walking 10 miles today and I'm having to wear sunglasses as it's so bloody bright here in my world.

How bright is yours?

Rory Coleman - 976 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables - 
9 Guinness World Records - 8275 Days' Alcohol Free.

Location:Pembroke Road,Cardiff,United Kingdom