parkrun - 25th september 2021 - thurrock - 22:15

I realise the last three posts have all been parkrun. I've had some pretty busy weekends which I am planning on writing up, but I just haven't had the time or energy.

But I did still manage to get to Parkrun again. This is #49; I'm finally almost at the first big milestone! We also finally got round to running to and from Parkrun, so I was well fueled and well warmed up. After last week where I definitely started too quickly and had to try and hang on, this week I paced myself well on the first kilometre and stayed strong throughout the whole distance.

There was some fun racing: by the halfway point I was running in a group of 4 all jostling for position. Down the straight I broke away with one other guy, but as the fourth kilometre finished he started to pull away as my legs failed a bit. He passed an older man and a young girl, and I was catching both of them. Past the final turn, there's a 350m straight all the way to the finish. I usually try my hardest to push all the way down; I was catching the two ahead of me, and they were catching the guy I was originally running with who looked like he was flagging a bit. From somewhere deep inside I pulled out a solid sprint finish, overtaking almost all of them but getting pipped by the younger girl just on the line.

A fun race that netted me my best time this year. Sub-22 seems very doable with a bit more training, and it's nice that what I'm doing does seem to be paying off. I'm enjoying the cross training through climbing and UWH, but I think a bit more running would go a long way as well.

tags: running, parkrun

permalink | posted by nathan on Sunday, the 26th of September, 2021, in an early evening lull

parkrun - 18th september 2021 - thurrock - 22:37

Another week, another parkrun. Would have liked to have done more exercise this week, but I was pretty tired after last weekend.

Not much to say about this one. I went off way too fast, and then had to try and hang on: kilometre four was particularly hard. I was aiming for mid-22s though, so it worked out. Happy to see this kind of time officially, and hope to see that time trending back down.

tags: parkrun, running

permalink | posted by nathan on Monday, the 20th of September, 2021, during the most productive hours of the day

parkrun - 11th september 2021 - preston park - 23:50

I was in Brighton for a Stag Do over the weekend, but I still wanted to go to parkrun. So I dragged my tired and slightly hungover butt to Preston Park and did 5k. I started off pretty strong but lost a lot of energy. Considering my breakfast was 3 carrot sticks and I went to bed at 2:30am, I'm not that surprised. Hopefully I can get some good running in next week and be back on form soon!

tags: running, parkrun

permalink | posted by nathan on Sunday, the 12th of September, 2021, when he should have been getting ready for bed

on art - part 1: hamilton

"That was art." was my reaction to seeing Hamilton for the first time. It was around the time that Beth and I had moved in together in London, and one of our friends (and, to be honest, the whole internet) was raving about Hamilton. It had recently opened in the West End, and Beth's Dad managed to get us some very nice tickets through someone he knew.

Going in, I was a little bit cautious. There was a huge amount of buzz around this musical, and I'm usually a strong believer of "don't believe the hype" until I've seen things for myself. For Hamilton though, it was fully justified. I left the theatre not just deeply impressed with the music and lyrics, but also genuinely moved by the story and the ideas presented: the importance of hard work; the value in having beliefs and views and discussing and vocalising them; the concept of your legacy; the absolute truth of the lines "When you got skin in the game, you stay in the game/But you don't get a win unless you play in the game"; and the deep, yearning desire I get to do good in the world and do something with my life when Hamilton clatters out

Burr, we studied and we fought and we killed
For the notion of a nation we now get to build For once in your life, take a stand with pride I don't understand how you stand to the side

A large part of what I think makes Hamilton exceptional are the musical themes and leitmotifs that build and develop throughout. Taking a single line "Look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now", we can see that the line is:

• Introduced in "The Schuyler Sisters" as comment about how exciting and progressive Eliza thinks the current period is.
• Used by Eliza again in "That Would Be Enough" to tell Hamilton that she's pregnant and to show how scared she was for Hamilton fighting in the war,
• Thrown back at her by Hamilton in "Non-Stop" as he's trying to convince her that taking the Treasury position is a good idea (and in other ways by Eliza after that in the song).
• By Eliza in "Take a Break", trying to convince Hamilton to enjoy his life and spend time with his family and son (who is rapidly growing up).
• Then finally, desperately twisted by Hamilton in "It's Quiet Uptown" as he is trying to console a grieving Eliza, but can't bring himself to claim anyone is lucky to be alive right now.

As I was writing this, I also realised that "Look around" is used with "Isn't this enough" a number of times as well, which also ties into the concept of being satisfied; it's all interlinked and builds on itself to create a complex web of emotions tied to a single lyric (or even just a single word). This comes to a head in Hamilton's final speech (song? poem?) in "The World Was Wide Enough". Explaining what is happening in Alexander's head the fractions of a second before he dies is a difficult task, but by using and leading on the previously built up motifs, the speech pulls you through all the different, complicated emotions and provides an incredibly powerful and impactful exit for Hamilton.

We went to see Hamilton for the second time last week. We're trying to finish off everything we want to do in London before we leave for Vancouver, and seeing Hamilton again was very high on the list. The seats were a lot worse than the first time, and I was also worried that the performance itself wouldn't live up to my memory of it. I should have known I had nothing to worry about.

tags: art, life

permalink | posted by nathan on Sunday, the 12th of September, 2021, during the most productive hours of the day

emma raducanu

I don't even like tennis, but that was something else.

tags: drunk, sport

permalink | posted by nathan on Sunday, the 12th of September, 2021, when he should have been sleeping