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Interview with Sharkie





Sharkie says: All chocolate plain or milk, cheap or expensive single estate 215% blah de blah is good (as long as it doesn't come with 'a hint of gin/banana/herbal infusion/etc etc'. I will not tolerate 'a hint of') All cake is not good and is even more likely to be messed about with. Or to contain banana or raisins. But a plainish, richish, darkish, moistish chocolate fudge cake is a thing of beauty. With Smarties on the top.

Sharkie says: Thank you my favourite lovely Scottish Fetchie. (So many lovely Scottish Fetchies though. Perhaps an 'oos best is inappropriate?). You mustn't be scared of track. I remember you taking Boypie to Meadowbank - he loved it, even given a little wobble mid session - and so would you. You have the right sort of mentality to benefit from track - you are serious but don't take yourself too seriously. It's just confidence isn't it? We need more women at track! We need you!
Proudest moment...um probably at the end of 2011 when I realised I'd finished top ten for my age group for five different events - all three sprints (even the 400m GET ME) plus the high jump and long jump. Astonished doesn't come close. NB it's a v.small pond!

Sharkie says: Thanks AL. Mmm good blog subject for anyone struggling with that last dozen or so. But... live or dead, famous or friends, would the final six get on - and does one include oneself? What about one's significant other - would he or she be a hindrance to any post party shenanigans one might have in mind? So much to think about....
The following aren't my favourite people of all time - most of whom would be TERRIBLE at a dinner party - but this little gang might work. Off the top of my head: David Beckham, Tamara Rojo, Clare Balding, Matthew Bourne and Johnny Marr.
And finally Zoe Ball because she is knowledgeable about music and dancing, she's a good listener and doesn't go on about herself, seems like a laugh, and she lives in Brighton so it's not too far for her to get home. She doesn't need to bring that Fat Boy though.
I'll have to blog the other reasons later!

How would a middle-aged man with a beard go from breaking himself training for marathons to not breaking himself training for 400s on the track?
Sharkie says: Martyn Rooney has a beard and he's a bit quick at the 400. He's a 'bit' younger than you admittedly. 400 is the most difficult distance to race and it's very hard to train for too, as the training has to be so specific and is guaranteed to make you feel that death would be a merciful release. However you will get KUDOS and be NAILS so go for it.


Sharkie says: Think tall and keep your shoulders down. Works in any given situation.

Sharkie says: Jess, Raffo, me, in that order. Mind you I could probably distract Jess by throwing a ball and get a DNS from Raffo by reminding him how much it will hurt.

Sharkie says: Oh let's take a wild stab at this. Fewer.
As for the vlog bandwagon probably not as I would have to spend so long in hair and make-up.

Sharkie says: Are 'favourite' and 'best' book different? I have a few favourites - one of which I believe you are just about to read yourself - The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. But this is a running site and I will nominate a strange little book one of my Pilates teachers loaned me because she felt it would really help a few issues I had. It did, it does. 'Taking Root to Fly' by Irene Dowd. Strap line: 'articles on functional anatomy.'

Sharkie says: Thanks Curly. I sort of regret not going under 80 seconds for the 400m, while I was still in my fifties. My PB at 57 was 81. I've never trained for a 400 but if I had done so I would have got a lot closer to 75. HOWEVER it is too much like hard work so I don't regret it that much.


Sharkie says: Thanks Mr Grrrrrr. Because Fetch is nudging me to get these answers finished, and because you asked me someting similar earlier in the year I'm gong to cheat and direct you to my July 10th blog.
http://www.fetcheveryone.com/blog-view.php?id=4167&m=7&y=2014#blog315904

Sharkie says: Oh thankyou, jenny. No, not sure at all. Who 'was' that masked woman I saw sheltering from the rain outside the Rio Cinema in Kingsland High St?

Sharkie says: Thank you Carpathius. There have been lots of great moments - training and racing, and lots of funny stories (usually involving Martians) so it's hard to pick out one. Two days stand out - the Southern Counties Vets Finals in 2010 when I did 8 events for my team including all three jumps, all three sprints including the hated 400, chucked a shot and ran the final leg in the 4 x1. I got two PBs and that year won the ladies vets trophy at Serpentine for the second time. So that was a good day (puffs out insubstantial chest). But so was a really hot day in Colchester this year competing for the Senior Serpie team (not vets) and not managing anything like the times and jumps of a couple of years previously. Just being there on a lovely day, with the sun beating down, doing the stuff I love, with people I like, managing season's bests and coming away feeling optimistic that there IS still more and better to come - THAT'S dead good as well. It's not always about PBs and fastest and winning.

Sharkie says: Good question, tricky though. Naturally I wonder how good I would have been if I'd done athletics as a teenager - but THAT was never going to happen. You know, as well as I do, that it just wasn't cool to be sporty in the late 60s and early 70s. And you are right - there's no way it would have fitted into my life before I was um ..forty. But, I would like to have started serious sprinting earlier - in my early to mid forties say rather than my mid fifties. There is such a lot of technique to learn - I'm always playing catch up and although one CAN learn new things - and should in my opinion - when one is older, it does take longer and is more difficult.

Sharkie says: Oh definitely the 100m. That's METRES not MILES you lot! But I suspect 60m is my 'best' distance.

Sharkie says: I'm not in London as much as I'd like to be anymore - but I like being at the seaside nearly all the time too, so it's actually an impossible situation. My Serpie team is important to me - I would never have discovered sprinting without them - but it's just liking London a LOT that keeps hauling me back. Great cities are great. End of. (Dalston is gradually becoming more upmarket... but it will take a good while yet before it loses its overall working class character. I originally liked it and felt safe there because, odd as it may sound, it felt like where I grew up in Manchester - sort of 'ordinary'.

Sharkie says: I certainly don't have perfect control over every muscle! Have you SEEN my recalcitrant right arm when I'm sprinting? But yes I've always been quite supple, although it's still a case of use it or lose it. Quite a lot of dance training in the past has been another big help. The agility has to be worked on at least as much as the mobility - physical confidence counts for a lot and that's partly about having control of your limbs and good body awareness (proprioception). It's never too late to learn it to some extent.

Sharkie says: Why thank you kind sir! Although I am 173 years old I am surprisingly susceptible to flattery. No fool like an old fool, eh.

Sharkie says: Phew, that's an easy one. It's one of Raffo's jokes that I always have to be moving forward or I die. And of course I am the least shark like person in the world as I'm a rubbish swimmer and lack the killer instinct. I'm more like the Pathetic Sharks in Vizz. I do like eating whole fish though.

Sharkie says: It has been too long, but the pictures, names and places from my childhood will be in my head for ever.

Sharkie says: Hello my friend from the days of the 'Two and a Half Parks' (Serpentine club 6ish mile run invented by Little Nemo, folks). I vaguely miss Serpie Wednesdays and Saturdays, and it's nice to be able to 'just' run in various surroundings. But I find distance running very difficult these days and I do love running fast and the training it involves, so no, not really. The furthest I run at the moment is 300 metres - in training, I've given up with 400s, they're too hard and I am appreciably better at the short stuff.

Sharkie says: Great question Beanie. Difficult though. If I was cleverer I would talk about the importance of self knowledge and the resulting self confidence that true self knowledge gives you. About people who are comfortable in their own skin and therefore don't worry about what others think and can be generous and open hearted. And sensible. Or something like that.

Sharkie says: Agility certainly seems more fun and plays to Jess' strengths of speed and athleticism, although advanced obedience could be more interesting for Jess than the Kennel Club Good Citizen stuff. But what would really suit her is the Shutzhund thing which involves tracking, obedience with obstacles and 'protection' which I know she'd love as it involves launching yourself at potential ne'er do wells and hanging on until the handler says 'let go'. She's good at that. She'd probably quite enjoy a barking contest too or some sort of X factor affair which would showcase her remarkable singing.

Sharkie says: Me an' the boy often find ourselves watching Jess Ennis on the last lap of her 800m London 2012. She goes out hard on the first lap - as she always does (suicidal, frankly) and half way down the back straight on the final lap two of the big girls pass her. She hangs on round the bend and when they reach the 100 straight - although she doesn't have to, she's won the gold anyway, she says, 'No, I'm not having THAT. It's my race, I'm going to finish in style.' Adrenaline carries her past the big girls and she flies down the home straight to gold. Brave, mad, gorgeous.

Sharkie says: Thanks Alice, my blogging chum. I dunno! I am thinking about writing an independent blog though - but am not quite sure where to pitch it. I'm a bit ...random, to say the least.


Sharkie says: Any of my favourite songs would pall if the lift was stuck for a long time, and I can't bear that to happen - so I will sadly reject Hendrix's version of All Along the Watchtower, and The Stones Gimme Shelter. However perhaps it would only be stuck for about half and hour and Desolation Row off Highway 61 Revisted is 8 minutes long so perhaps.....

Sharkie says: Thank you D! I love the South of France so... I don't know if Nice has a running track (it has to be a track) but that would do Nicely.

Sharkie says: I might have known once but I don't now. We sometimes run the other was round in training if we have the track to ourselves. My coach likes to mix things up wherever he can. It's odd how different it feels. Do sheep on Welsh hillsides have two legs shorter than the other two?

and finaly what face cream do you use to keep looking so youthful and can i borrow your shark dress one day sis

Sharkie says: Thank you little sis, where you go I follow! If you mean 'have' someone else's body rather than 'be' that other person then I wouldn't mind Kate Moss' body, she's twenty years younger and several inches taller but not too tall. And I've never wanted massive knockers so I don't care about that. I'd be happy with Jess Ennis' body too - hers is incredible and can do incredible things AND she's got great legs and a great bum (and she's even younger) so praps she wins out over Kate even though she doesn't look as good in a slinky party frock and heels. Boots No7 Lift and Luminate darling. And yes of course you can as long as you promise not to do a tri in it. Not even for team GB. xxxxx

Sharkie says: I was a fast runner at primary school but not at all sporty at secondary school. Anything sporty was considered extremely uncool, especially for girls, in the 1960s. I was a bit of a rock and roll, JD swigging, Fag Ash Lil in my twenties and thirties. And forties. However as I'd always danced and cycled taking up running in my fifties wasn't too much of a shock to the system. I'd stopped smoking and cycled less far and didn't want to turn into a lard mountain But also see answer to Lazydaisy's question.

Just how hard is a full-on sprint race? Say a flat-out 200, how does the fatigue and mental concentration for that distance compare to longer distance?
Sharkie says: Thanks Duckie, me old mate. You sort of know really, don't you, being a sprinter (or MD runner at least) as well as a distance runner yourself - I should be asking you! It's so different. The concentration is much more intense you can't lose it for a millisecond- there is no such thing as auto pilot in a sprint. There would - obviously and even at my level - only be fatigue AFTER a 100m, but a 200 can seem a l-o-n-g way, and if you are running all out that final 50m can feel like it's against treacle. But a perfect sprint - you'll hardly feel you've run it 'til you're checking your time. 'Did I do THAT?' All the work has been beforehand and you just relax and run. But it's rare and precious. Well it is on a 200, for me, although it happened one sunny evening when I got my PB.