Respect

I didn’t know whether to do a post for this day or not. Perhaps just leaving the entry blank as a mark of respect would have been the best thing. However, here goes.

Sunday 25^th September was a very busy and traumatic day. The Nottingham Half Marathon was in the morning and the race goes very well although it soon starts to pale into insignificance as the events of the rest of the day start to unfold.

My morning as a fully paid up VIP goes well with tea/coffee laid on pre-race and two dedicated toilets for all the VIP crowd which includes the Elites. Ok, so that bit wasn’t so good and I opted to join the standard loo queues with the masses because it was quicker.

The course itself runs ok despite my misgivings about the organisers cutting out the University and adding in two dead turns instead. L, the dogs and my father are all at Crown Island so they get to cheer me past twice which is much appreciated. The second time I’m desperately trying to hang onto the coat tails of the 1:30 pacer which I fail to do. However my time is still good as I clock 1:43, which I’m actually thrilled with, on what is a well hilly course.

In the VIP tent afterwards there’s plenty of food, drinks, a massage and I get a free race photo as well. So overall it’s quite a good deal if you want all that.

By the time I finish L has already departed for the hospital with my father giving her a lift there. I head over to join her as soon as I can.

Sadly at around 7pm her brother passed away with his family around him. He was just 36. As ever I try and look for the positive in things no matter how hard that can sometimes be. He could have died in 1986 when he was just 6 but he received a donor heart that would enable him to enjoy another 30 years of life and for everyone to enjoy that with him.

A few odd things spring to mind at times like this. I first met him when I met L in 1996 when he would sometimes baby sit for her as I attempted to wine and dine L in an attempt to persuade her to spend the rest of her life with me. We had to pay him obviously, as you do with brothers, but he helped me get the girl.

He was famed for his taste in music (Rammstein anyone?) but it is a Marilyn Manson gig in late 2009 that I will remember him for. This was apparently his first gig and it was also notable for L getting all vamped up in blue hair dye and blue nail varnish. It was also bloody brilliant and he loved it.

Then of course, of late, there was his dogged refusal to give up on life even when everything seemed stacked up against him. That you really have to admire. He will be missed greatly.

When Daughter hears she gets straight on the next train over from Manchester and we pick her up from the station. When we get home we toast him with red wine, lemon cake and Bombay Bad Boy pot noodle. Some of his favourite things. RIP mate.

(Sunday 25^th September)