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Interview with PaulaMc


PaulaMc says: Hello! 😊 I’m way beyond racing anything now so it would have to be a route. If I had money enough to buy the best and lightest and strongest kit and could go at exactly the right time of year with the promise of perfect weather every day and an absolutely foolproof navigation system (I could get lost in my own back garden) then I think I’d like to hike the Appalachian Trail. I’d like to do a lot of it on my own so that I could really recharge my batteries but I would also need the option to be able to pick up my husband, Son2 and Bint at various points along the way because I’d want to share the experience with my favourite walking buddies 😊

PaulaMc says: Hi Caz 😊 If I could cover a whole tournament then I’d have to say Centre Court tickets for every day of Wimbledon. I wouldn’t even care who was playing. If it was just one standalone event then the Men’s Final and I’d hope it went to tie breaks in every set. Either that or being able to see every track and field event through an entire Olympics. The best seats in the house, naturally. As a wildcard, if I could fly or in some way be above the course it would be pretty fascinating to follow the madness that is the Barkley Marathons.

PaulaMc says: Hi Mushroom. I was never in the least bit sporty when I was younger having been put off most things by my dad helpfully commenting when I was about 8 that I was ‘too fat’ to do sport. Cheers Dad 🙄. Fast forward to the age of 38 and I’d joined a gym in an attempt to tone up a bit before my sister’s wedding and started running on the treadmill. One day I saw an advert for Race for Life and wondered if I could do it. I worked out a 5k loop around a local park, started running, went too fast and got injured. Somehow I got around the RfL event and then set about looking for a local running club to see if I could figure out whether it was worth me keeping going. In other words, was I cut out to be a runner or was I genetically unsuited to sport. Was I still ‘too fat’, whatever that meant.
I stumbled upon the Beginners course run by Dulwich Park Runners, signed up, went from zero to 5 miles in 8 weeks and found some likeminded buddies. Then I found Fetch and the rest is history.

And. Hope we can have a run or coffee soon x
PaulaMc says: Hi Linds ❤️ I’d say start very slowly, don’t worry about anybody else or what they are doing because they are most likely only worrying about themselves, and above all enjoy it. If you can find a buddy or buddies to join you then do - being accountable to someone else who will be waiting for you on a drizzly day is a great motivator and there’s nothing like chatting when you are running for both helping your mental health and keeping you at a steady pace: if you can’t hold a conversation then you’re going too fast! There’s plenty of time to work on speed once you have some endurance under your belt.
And yes - coffee, lunch and/or a chatty run need to be in the diary soon x

PaulaMc says: Hi westmoors 😊 Bill Bryson. He’d be the guest of honour at my fantasy dinner party. His books are chatty, funny and informative in equal measure and I think he’d be great company. He could give me some advice on my Appalachian Trail adventure, too, or if I’d already done it we could swap stories. And Stephen King, because he got me into the horror genre when I was very young (I read ‘Carrie’ when I was 11 😬) and his books are my guilty pleasures. I’ve had people raise eyebrows when I’ve said that in the past because apparently he’s not ‘literary’ enough but I think he’s a really good storyteller so those people can just do one with their literary snobbery. I used to work with a man whose cousin is SK’s wife but try as I might I couldn’t get him to invite us all round for dinner.


PaulaMc says: Yay indeed! This is really difficult because there’s not much I don’t like when it comes to food 🐷. Right now I’d probably go with a goat’s cheese, beetroot and walnut salad starter, the softest, most melt-in-your-mouth steak, medium rare, with triple cooked chips and mushrooms and peas for the main, and something with stem ginger ice cream for dessert - maybe a sponge of some sort. And then a full cheeseboard. There was a time when I would have pondered which wine to have with this but I stopped drinking a few months ago and so now I’d be happy with water or a proper lemonade. And coffee. And wafer thin mints 😊 However if I answered this on a different day you’d probably get a different answer …

PaulaMc says: Hello GG! Probably New Zealand, the South Island. My sister lives in Auckland and I loved visiting her a few years ago, I have to say it did live up to our expectations, even if I thought that a couple of the streets in Wellington reminded me a bit of Croydon 🤣 and the Auckland marathon was pretty boring. I’d really like to take a few weeks to explore the South Island in a camper van (top of the range, obviously) and then work our way slowly back up to Auckland again just in time for Christmas and New Year. We were vaguely planning to do something like this a few years ago but then - covid - and now we’ve just moved house so it’s all on the back burner again. Definitely not forgotten though, we’ll do it one day.


PaulaMc says: Hi Dipps 😄. Heels?! You do know me, don’t you 😂 Either walking boots or trail shoes because these would mean I was going on a hike with Son2 or Bint. I find these explorations/expeditions massively life affirming and most excellent for my soul. They can also be genuine good fun and silly: on one of my walks with Bint the conversation took a surreal turn so that we were suddenly talking about strippers and I laughed so much that I fell over and couldn’t get back up again.


PaulaMc says: Hey G! Thanks 😊 This is easy-peasy: Fetchies! I have made a number of lifelong friends thanks to this place, people who have supported me through tough times, made me laugh so much that I couldn’t stand up, encouraged me to look for new opportunities or make the most of existing ones and just generally made me feel better about myself. This is much more than a place to browse threads or add training, it’s a whole community that has had a massive, positive, impact on my life.

PaulaMc says: Hi Ness 😊. I think I’d say Beachy Head Marathon. I’ve had some of my best running experiences here. The views are fantastic, the aid stations are excellent (sausage rolls? Hot cross buns? A pub stop with a live band?) and if you run it with Fetchies you’ll have the best day out ever. I’ll never forget Serendippily running up behind me singing ‘Happy Birthday’ (it was actually my birthday, she hadn’t totally lost the plot 😂) and Fleecy being so out of breath on the Seven Sisters that she couldn’t even swear any more. The weather can be temperamental but that adds to the experience: the last time I did this I was forced by the wind to run up a hill when I was so tired that I could barely walk. Get a group together, make a weekend of it, and enjoy every minute.

PaulaMc says: Hi McGoohan 👋 This an easy one:
1. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee. I first read this at school for O Level (yes, I’m that old) and fell in love with it, despite us having to dissect every character, scene and chapter. I gave it to my daughter when she was about 10 and she then lobbied her class to choose it for their GCSE option. I read it at least once a year. I even have a tattoo (my only one) of a quote from my favourite scene. I won’t say what it is so as not to spoil the book for anyone who hasn’t read it - just fmail me if anyone wants to know 😊
2. Natural Born Heroes - Christopher McDougall (also author of ‘Born to Run’ about the Tarahumara). NBH is about the Cretan resistance during WWII and also about running and fitness and adventures. I’m not in the least bit interested in WWII and knew nothing about the resistance but this book drew me in and had me gripped from the start. Thoroughly recommended as a ripping yarn that should have a really wide appeal.
3. Empire of Pain - Patrick Radden Keefe. The history of the Sackler dynasty, Purdue pharma and the opioid crisis in the US. This book made me so angry that I told everyone at home and work to read it. He's another writer who introduced me to a story that I would not ordinarily have been interested in and did it so well that I found myself totally absorbed. As an aside I’d also recommend ‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed’ which is a documentary about an artist and activist called Nan Goldin, partly focussing on her attempts to hold the Sacklers to account for their actions.

PaulaMc says: Hi Som 😊
Definitely voodoo. This totally appeals to the dark side of my nature, the bit that has horror films as my go-to genre. Who wouldn’t want to stick needles into effigies of their enemies and actually see the effects, rather than just for fun. (Oops, did I say that last bit out loud .. 😉)

PaulaMc says: Hey Fetch 😊 I’d have to say by rallying my support network and standing on their shoulders. I’m naturally fairly introverted and need quite a lot of space and quiet time to recharge my emotional batteries but when I need help I know where to turn. If we’re talking about literally and physically getting going, as in running, then that’s a whole other question. I struggle, to be honest. I find it very easy to make excuses for myself and need to constantly be reminded about just how good I feel after a run and also usually during it. Once again it’s the people that make the difference: running with a buddy is great, running with Fetchies is pretty darn wonderful. Even running and chatting with a stranger can be a big boost, it’s knowing you already have some connection with them as you’re both involved in the same activity. So I guess the short answer to the original question is - people 😊