Entangled - Genesis

Classic Genesis...

Lyrics:- 'Sometimes entangled in your own dreams' - Banks, Hackett & Rutherford

Song Choice:- Well it's time to explore the full 6.28 minutes of 'Entangled', track two of 'A Trick of the Tail', Genesis' 1976 album that reached #3 in the UK Charts and the one I've chosen to use as blog themes for the next week or so. Phil Collins was just 24 when this was recorded, he already seemed old at the time (maybe it was because I was just 13) but like so many recording artists and bands of the time, Genesis probably did all their best work in their mid to late 20's – unlike other Rock-stars that clocked out in their prime by joining the 27 Club by mistake. You see, creativity seems to leave folk in their thirties as by then it’s all been used up and I have it on good authority that by the time we are 33 we've cemented our tastes and choices for life.

The song featured in the film ‘Genesis in Concert’ which accompanied the dreadful ‘White Rock’ Winter Olympics film with a 'Rick Wakeman' soundtrack, which I went to see at the Stratford-upon-Avon Picture House – those were the days eh? See here what you missed way back then… I saw it twice too (not the White Rock one though.

Stratford-upon-Avon Cinema - Rocking - Pic David Mills

Anyway, my thought today is about how ‘Entangled’ we get in our own ‘Life Spaghetti’ as we get older? Isn’t it amazing how we manage to make such a mess of our own creation. It’s not surprising though as stuff changes – ‘The Picture House’ has long gone and so has the Supermarket that replaced it – Everything changes, but very slowly. Slower than a slow thing on a slow day when things are particularly slow. Yes that slow… yet before you know it – you’re ‘Entangled in your own Dreams’ or in some cases ‘your own Nightmares’…

How 'Entangled' are you?

Rory Coleman - 986 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,471 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Cardiff, Wales

Dance on a Volcano - Genesis

Cool Magnolias

Lyrics:- 'Out of the night and out of the dark' - Banks, Collins, Hackett & Rutherford

Song Choice:- Well I think it's time for another 'Classic Album' series of blogs and after listening to 'A Trick of the Tail' in it's entirety at the weekend, (during my track marathon), I thought I'd share it with you - It's one of my favourite Genesis albums, and ridiculously now 41 years old! Yikes, 1976 seems only like yesterday too...

Anyway, if your world is turned upside down, through no fault of your own, just like it was for Genesis back in 1975 with the 'Gabriel Departure', then you must come back stronger and hit harder right from the start if you want to regain some of your previous successes or even supersede them - sound familiar? `For Genesis, it certainly paid off...

I'm not saying that the same will happen of me and I don't think I superseded anything at the weekend myself, I just regained some self-control and saw some daylight at the end of my tunnel and came 'Out of the night and out of the dark', as the song goes.

The line I really like however is, 'The lava's the lover who licks your boots away' as that's how it's been feeling for me for so many months now after having my feet feeling like they were on fire with the GBS but not with normal flames but with molten-super-white-hot-lava. Some lover eh?

But do you know what? It would be dead easy to become a victim of all of that pain and just give into life and the cards that you're dealt but sometimes you have to put your cards on the table and be able to read your own future in them. A place where there's light at the end of the tunnel and it's safe to walk on the cracks in the pavement, because at the end of the day life's far too short and it's better to have fought than not to have fought at all.

How bright is your future? Is it Lava-ly?

Rory Coleman - 986 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,470 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Cardiff, Wales

Desert Raven - Jonathan Wilson

Lyrics:- 'Close your eyes and fly away, let the diamonds make the light, crystal blue will turn your ruby red' - Jonathan Wilson

Song Choice:- This track was suggested to me by one of my clients, a couple of years ago, as one I might want to listen to during a stage of the actual Marathon des Sables itself.  And, I've done just that on the long stage, right in the middle of the day, in the middle of the grill pan dried up desert, and that's where I got the real sense of what the song's all about, and more importantly why I've done the race so many times and am now why I'm returning to re-live the experience all over again this year. 

If you take a look and listen on YouTube here, it's the imagery (apart from all the weird American scrapyard stuff) as well as the music that makes me feel very emotional about the whole 'Desert life-experience'. When you are there, it can be completely overwhelming...

You see the race is surrounded in all sorts of myths and voodoo about how to train, what to carry and what to wear, but all that stuff is long forgotten when you are in the middle of it - right in the middle of the day, in the middle of the grill pan dried up desert, in the middle of nowhere looking up to the heavens and seeing the Eagles soaring high above you in the dark blue cloudless sky.

Wow, that's a real life moment, I can tell you...

The MdS is all about how it's makes you feel - it makes me feel alive. As you are probably aware running has always been more of a good friend and therapy for me all of these years . Results and successes have always been classed as a bonus of being sober if I'm being honest.

Last year, I lost that old MdS friend and all of my existence and future was taken away from my world as I laid unable to move a muscle. After months and months of rehab and even as recently as the last few days there have been some massive highs and lows to contend with as my journey towards MdS '17 continues and the race gets closer

I'd been thinking about writing this blog for a few days. I wanted it to say to folk going this year just to relax and enjoy the experience. To keep safe and not take any chances and not to worry. 

So to get into the mood I listened to the track on Saturday and got to 'The sun was rising, the day was saddled up to go' (a very MdS visual snapshot for me as each day of the race we walk like snails towards the start line to do our stuff) part and just had a good old sob as it felt I'd lost my identity since being ill last year with the Guillain-Barre Syndrome and that the race would now be a total let down and disappointment. Combine that with the thought of running a track marathon the Sunday, where I knew the leader in the 40-mile race would lap me twice a lap, I really did feel broken.

I'm the first to admit that if I were looking in on one of my clients lives, I'd being saying what folk are say to me - 'Look how far you've come, how quickly you've recovered - be grateful'. And I am - I really am, and I'm coming to terms with the new me, what I am and what I'm not capable of, but it still hurts. 

So not the best preparation for the track marathon if I'm being honest, but the 105.4 laps turned out to be a real game changer and after four warm up laps of getting to get my central-nervous system firing my muscles as efficiently as possible, I cranked in some very consistent lap times and I felt like the old me for the first time since before the last year's MdS. I might have only beaten the five-hour mark by 34 seconds but I battered myself around those last 10 laps like I was setting my marathon PB back in 1996 - but who cares - I felt alive and heading towards Sunday 9th April, I'm now in a much better place mentally to kick it's arse this year.

My day-to-day recovery is still poor but I'm looking forward to listening to 'Desert Raven' on the long stage this year and as he sings 'Close your eyes and fly away, let the diamonds make the light, crystal blue will turn your ruby red' as I'll have tears of joy running down my cheeks feeling like I had a very close shave.

I nearly didn't make it... When you've got the medal and experienced it for yourself you'll understand how 157 miles of sand in six stages can have such a profound effect on your life. It has mine  and it's something you'll want to do again maybe more than once - you'll see.

Rory Coleman - 986 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,469 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Cardiff, Wales

News of the World - The Jam

Lyrics:- 'The truth is in what you see, not what you read. Little men tapping things out, points of view' - Foxton

Song Choice:- It's rare for me to pick a Jam song as they weren't really my cup of tea way back then. The 3rd March 1978, if you want to be precise and only got to #27 in the charts and didn't appear on a studio album either according to Wiki (if you believe that).

What is hard to believe is that this track's 39 years old and wrongly, I thought it's vitriolic tone and lyrics were of typical 'Weller' styling but it was actually written by Bass player Bruce Foxton, only shows just how wrong you can be eh?

But then we do get our wires crossed and after yesterday's anti-inspirational 'We are Architects of our own Failure', my message today is about creating our own 'Front Page News' rather than reading other people's.

Ignoring the 'News of the World, Freddie are my Hamster' styled headlines - I checked out three headlines on MSN Today and Trump's sacked 46 of Obamas attorneys, a woman has been jailed for 17 years for getting one of her sons to try and kill the other one and the 'Jack the Ripper' case has probably been solved - hardly news as it's 129 year old chip papers that one.

I'm not sure how any of today's 'News of the World' will affect me. Trump's planet and mine are worlds apart, the lady is locked up and 'Jack the Ripper' has been dead since 1942. Yet why are we susceptible to devouring and storing this useless information. The 1942 bit has already been stored!

So here's a thought for you today...

What does your headline read - 'Voyeur's 90 minutes of young men playing on grass' says 'We were robbed' or will it say something about YOU? And what you've done today in your world.

Mine will say 'Cardiff Man takes it easy before 105.4 laps of Leckwith Stadium' because today is a bit of a non-news day. Don't worry, there's a bumper Sunday Edition due out tomorrow - what does your front page say about you?

Rory Coleman - 984 Marathons - 241 Ultras - 13 Marathon des Sables

9 Guinness World Records - 8,466 Days' Alcohol Free

& 1 Inspirational Running Memoir - Get your copy here.

Location: Cardiff, Wales