29.51 for 3 miles and Stephen Castleton

My time for 3 miles (approx 5k) running at the gym.  Only my second run of any kind (apart from the occasional Dad jogs for the bus) since 3 May 2014 and possibly my longest continuous run ever.
Well, I did the Great North Run in 1981 when Tony Landers dropped out with a week to go but I know I didn't do any training and from memory I stopped for a walk every half mile or so.

I've never been one for running.  It's just too bloody hard and I'm just too bloody lazy.  If I'd been running on the road or round the track I would have stopped but I just set the treadmill for 6 mile per hour and counted the minutes down from 30.

Of course there is a purpose.  There's a chance I might be doing the magnificent Albert Park run a week on Saturday and I wanted to try the distance to see if I could manage it.

Why do the park run?  Well it's Boro and it's brill but mainly because Mike coming home on Sunday for a week and he usually does the run when he's here and I said I would so....

I'm pretty unfit nowadays. Probably not bad for your average 50 something but average is just another word for pretty shit in my book.  I've always been ok though and was quite quick over 10 to 20 yards well into my forties mainly thanks to all the 5-a-side football I played.

I could have been a contender though.  I remember being super fit when I was 14.  It was the fittest I ever.  I was unstoppable over middle distances.  I won my school year 800m sports day trial run by about 50 yards.  I did that thing, you know where a pacemaker goes miles ahead because nobody follows him but they eventually catch him...  But they let me get too far ahead and couldn't catch me.

It didn't last though.  Sadly, not long after that Stephen Castleton put paid to my athletic career.  It was one lunch-time after dinner.  A load of lads decided to do that thing where you hold hands and turn round in a circle.  So the further you are on the outside the longer you have to run to keep up and the one on the outside has to run the furthest.  The game was that the person on the outside let go when he couldn't keep up.

And.... it was a long line and.... I was on the outside and Stephen Castleton was next to me.  Only when I tried to let go he wouldn't and I was literally flying in the air.  It must have been a Physics thing because Casso was no beefcake.  When he eventually let go I went flying through the air to a crash landing.

It's a sad story.  I broke my collar bone, was off school a week and couldn't exercise for 4 weeks.  And I never recovered my peak fitness.

So, the real point of this story is Casso.  He was a dude.  He wore John Lennon glasses and had an older brother into prog rock which helped make Casso an expert in the genre.  Circa 1974 to early 1977 prog rock was king.  We were all music mad at school and Casso introduced us all to Yes, Genesis, Can and Faust amongst others. Casso was king.

Nothing ever lasts forever though and by 1978 prog rock had become prig rock and the last time I saw Casso (early 1979?) he told me was into this "new" Dutch band, Gruppo Sportivo.  I told him me and my brother already had 2 of their LP's. King Casso's time was over.

He wasn't a bad lad though but he had a lisp that some of the lads occasionally took the piss out of.  To my discredit I often recalled the time Casso said (you have to say it with a lisp)  "did anybody see Sassafras on the Whistle Test last night" (19/3/74 no less).  I'm not sure if he really said it but he did go on about Sassafras and the Whistle Test so on a you believe what you want to believe basis I do.

I forgot all about this until just before Christmas.  Prog rock's back in favour and I remembered the cool lad who was so knowledgeable back in the day and recalled the Sassafras story.  It's still funny but in these diverse days it sounds much crueler than it did back in the day.  I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty.

So I'm a bit sorry Casso if you find this blog article and I'm not a bitter man over the collar bone and the end of my promising athletic career so we'll call it quits eh?