James - 1.6

20:35

Warning: this entry is going to be a downer. We got some bad news a few days ago. A friend of mine back in Manchester, Gary, passed away. We were friends for 15 years but one of the few things we did together regularly after leaving school was go running together.

He actually took me on my first run in 2006. A bunch of us were doing jujitsu on Tuesday evenings and to supplement that exercise he and I started running on Thursday evenings, after he finished work, and Saturday mornings, when he had to drag me out of bed. That first time he had me going for 41 minutes (with only a couple of breaks) and tried to convince me that much less time had passed while we were doing it. Total bastard! A tough-love training method that wasn't exactly his regular personality. We ended the run going up a slope near my house alongside the canal, a place where I would begin and end most of my runs until I moved away. He reached the top before me and when I caught up I pounced on him with a comical scream of pain. We used to spend a lot of time at the top of that slope talking as well, not just following runs, but after nights out, and after we finished late shifts together at a local shop as teenagers. It was just a good spot to go separate ways to our homes. Sometimes the sun came up before we were done, as cliche as that sounds.

After helping me get started his own running trailed off over the last few years. But he had been training for the Manchester 10K in May this year. I had been hoping to get home in time to do that with him and another friend, but that probably won't be happening. I'm not in good enough shape in any case. As soon as I am able to do a race though, he'll be on my mind. Maybe I'll finally get why so many people do dedication runs.