running

Recording audio for ASICS

simon Life, running , Comment

I recorded a mini documentary and a TV commercial about myself for ASICS a few months ago. Recently I received an email asking me to pop to a recording studio to record some audio. I imagined I had messed up some of what I had spoke about and needed it re recorded.

Today I received my “script”, not I say script. It was more a transcription of what I had said during conversations I had with the film crew (I had a mic on all day). Reading through my script I thought to myself; I really can’t remember saying this? It sounds way to scripted? Would I have been able to come up with these lines in conversation?

When I arrived at the studio and was escorted into my little booth all my questions were answers. I had indeed said all those lines as they played an audio track of me saying them! The next 90 minutes consisted of 70+ takes of me repeating the lines of conversation I had delivered on the day.

Its a funny thing when you have to repeat lines again and again. The word level slowly turned into the word eleven, I kept dropping words and adding words. I don’t think I have a career as a voice over artist thats for sure!

The process in the end turned out to be really fun, chatting to the agency recording the audio and hearing which versions of my lines sounded the best. I must say hear that I hate the sound of my own voice, I refuse to listen to any interviews or recordings I create. I just can’t do it! But after a while today even I thought the audio track was beginning to sound good.

I can’t wait for the finished article, it has been a great privilege to shoot a TV commercial it really is something to tick of the life achievements list.

A New Challenge

simon Life, running , Comment

Even though university is keeping me incredibly busy I have began to think about a new running challenge. The Championship next year is a definite but I now feel the need to find something else.

I think this comes down to now realising the 100 mile run is definitely possible. With my limited training this year I was able to make it 83 miles, so how hard can that next 17 be? With another 8 months of training I am hoping not to hard.

So I have begun to think about a multi day event. I don’t really want to announce my plans yet as they are far from confirmed. I am going to email a few people and see if I can even afford to do a multi day event.

But the sheer thought of planning for my next big challenge is beginning to excite.

Its been a while….

simon Uncategorized , , Comment

The blog has been quiet for a while but rather than a lack of things to blog about I have just been too busy.

Adjusting to university has been a lot harder than I had anticipated. With the commute to university being the first time I have used my long cane it has been taking its toll. I perhaps rather wrongly assumed people would be forgiving of me using the cane and be polite. This turned out to be wrong.

Today for example as I boarded the tram someone clean kicked my cane out from me. No apology they just looked at me and pushed by me. This unfortunately happens on the majority of commutes. On the flip side about once a week someone is actually helpful and assists me with something.

With the rush hour commute being difficult I decided to make a few changes to my timetable to ease the process. Thankfully i didn’t enjoy the module I dropped to ease the commute. So I suppose it did all work out for the best.

While I begin to get my studies under control I have been thinking about next years ultra running. I am definitely entering the UltraRace Championship which will see me return to the Cotswold 100 amongst many other races (90 miles in Jan I best get training!) I have begun to think about other challenges.

I have never been fond of the multi day event but the past few weeks have been thinking about how far I could run in a week. 210 miles seems perfect achievable so could I run 280? push it to 300? I have a few destinations in mind and some interesting point-to-point runs. Just need some funding! (or sponsorship!)

Reflective

simon Life , , 3 Comments

The past year my life has changed dramatically. Perhaps the most important I became a father. In an effort to make my life challenging I also decided to start a new career path and begin training to become an ultra endurance athlete. I began all of these new ventures in the same week; just to compound the pressure!

Now nearly a year later I have begun to reflect on where I am and how the public image I have created is perceived. My public image is created around the fact I am a blind ultra runner and to a further extent the fact I train solo outdoors. As I begin to reflect on this public image I am a little uneasy.

What image am I creating of a disabled person? Am I utilising my disability as a PR stunt?

It is these two questions that are currently making me think. When I began my journey to compete at the ultra distance I had never thought about the public discovering what I was doing. So when did that change?

It all changed when I realised how expensive training for an ultra had become and I needed to reach out to companies for support. This is where I made the choice to market myself as a blind ultra runner. I am now wondering how the public at large perceives this. I hope people don’t perceive me as constantly marketing myself on my disability in an effort to gain support.

It is such a fine line to walk; I don’t think I can escape the moniker of a blind ultra runner or if I even want to. I hope the message that does come across is the ability to adapt. That’s my core belief and the reason I own this domain name. I constantly adapt to overcome barriers and that is the message I really want to project.

I think right now I am just a little confused about the entire situation but that could be related to the opportunities I have been granted. In the past year I have appeared in magazines, newspapers, live television, international television, books and I now have a TV commercial about my running. It is difficult to process how far I have come in such a short space of time.

Perhaps the uncertainty is a good thing, as I will constantly remain thankful for the opportunities I have been given. This post has perhaps been my most scattered in a while but it is basically how I feel about the situation. I am becoming far more conscious of how I project myself and being careful of the message I carry.

However perception is always down to the individual, so knowing how people perceive my story and process it will always be personal to them. The one thing I will always be vigilant of is to not label myself beyond the boundaries of who I am. I am blind, I am an ultra runner, I am a father. Any other labels attached to myself is down to the individual.

The Ultra

simon running , Comment

I wrote up a small race report for Wired about my ultra so instead of repeating myself go check it out!

I do plan on talking about the race more in depth in the future and the aftermath in terms of did the race change me? So if anyone has any questions for me to answer let me know!

The Run

simon Uncategorized , Comment

It has all been a little quiet over here recently about my running. Well there are 11 days to go till I approach that start line and run 100 miles.

I still plan to broadcast the race live through RunKeeper and I am currently maintaing a separate blog for the occasion. Blind100

The race starts on the 24th of June at 1200GMT the broadcast will start a little earlier and that just to make sure everything is functioning correctly.

So what condition am I in? I am coming off the back of a little bone bruising but I am ready as I can be at this point. The training miles have been put in I just need to bring my A game on the 24th and log those miles!

Get Donating!!

simon running , 1 Comment

When I initially came up with the idea of running 100 miles I never gave a thought to running for charity.  As the day of the run drew closer I began to wonder if running for a charity would be a good idea.

Around the same time Radio 1 were doing a hike for SightSavers, listening to the difference £5 could make to someones life I knew this would be a great charity to support.  For only £5 one persons vision can be restored, for such a small amount of money that is a huge impact.

I am hopeful I will be able to raise more than enough money to save at least one persons vision per mile (or if people are generous maybe 10?).  So please donate over at Just Giving. You can make a huge difference for a tiny amount!

I have also produced a number of prints, each sale will raise enough to save one persons vision so check them out!

So please be generous and spread the word!

Troubles….

simon Life, running , Comment

For the past 2 weeks we have been having a number of car troubles. It just keeps breaking down!

This introduces a number of problems like getting to college, doing the shopping and running. To go for a run my wife usually drives me to the airport and drops me off. Without a car it means I cant really run.

It is a 2 hour walk for my wife to drop me off and pick me up, so not really feasible and I can’t safely walk the route on my own. Far to many busy roads and I don’t know the route very well.

In an effort to keep up my training I decided to take a walk to my parents house. When I lived there I used to have a pretty impressive home gym and some of the equipment still remains. So the plan was to do 20 miles on an exercise bike.

I jumped on the bike and attempted to operate the machine. I was unable to read the screen and it made no audio notifications. After a few minutes this irritated me far to much and I had to stop.

The control I have using RunKeeper simply wasn’t translating to a stationary bike. It was to frustrating having no control and no feedback so I just called it a day.

Frustrated I called it quits and we headed home. So unfortunately I have missed a couple of runs this week. I have put a plan in place to do the big miles as I cannot miss the long runs this close to the race.

But the car remains broken.

Excuses: I got a lot

simon running , 2 Comments

Last night despite still feeling a little rough from the pesky cold I decided to do a little run. I have been trying to practice running at night, its something I have never done so I am trying to build my confidence.

It was a short 4 miles run but I was struggling at the 2 mile mark. This should of been a sign, despite this I thought I could run a 28 miler today; in an effort to catch up on missed miles.

Turns out that was a little ambitious. I was struggling at mile 6 and coughing up large amount of phlegm. I convinced myself Gu could solve all and swallowed more than I usually would.

This took me to mile 12, a quick nuun; again convincing myself it was hydration and I was fine for a few more miles. I lasted to mile 15 before it was just time to quit. I was fatigued, down on pace and decided to make the shame call.

Asking my wife to collect me 3 hours early, even worse I didn’t even make it to the agreed collection point, she had to come find me.

So the excuses:

I was ill
Dehydrated
Fatigued from running 10 hours previous
It was unseasonably warm, 20+ in April!

I do worry this close to the race about not hitting weekly mileage, but its a new start next week. I will be over my cold and ready to put in some big runs.