Seeing my younger self, nervous as a hare ...

I spent an hour or so in the gym this morning - 

I ran on the running machine, gazing out at the Purbeck Hills - 

Rain fell on the school playing fields - thin boys were practising passing a rugby ball - 

Their teacher zipped up his fleece - 

I recalled my boyhood horror of games lessons, the shouting, the sullen grass, the compulsory showers afterwards - 

On one of the flat TV screens, Philip Schofield sat upon a sofa - on the other screen, black dudes sat in a convertible with monstrous fins - 

I'd not been to the gym for at least a week - I'd been either sanding bedroom floors or idling in Shoreditch - 

I felt happy to be running here again - I stopped thinking sad thoughts - 

But looking out of the window at the shivering boys, I thought I saw my younger self - 

There I was, running across the fields, wrists as delicate as bone, nervous as a hare - 

11.00

Wednesday 29 April 2015

Purbeck Sports Centre 

Wareham 

Dorset