Chapter 2: University and a New York State of Mind

Always energetic, I ran everywhere but failed to apply myself consistently in many things (not JUST sport). After school I dropped all sporting activities and began my period of continuous hedonism sprinkled with sporadic periods of study. Yes I did a trial for the rugby team and they quite liked my speed but I couldn't be bothered.

It was only in New York in 1990 where I was introduced to Rollerblading that I seemed to recapture some of my love for activity that did not involve drinking vodka with Jolt Cola (twice the caffeine of normal colas doncha know).

My then girlfriend, Linda Bell was from Iowa and was a troubled soul but did open my eyes to rollerblading round Central Park.

This would usually have been fine but I started learning in December and it was dark at night. But I soldiered on, embracing the speeds you could achieve on some of the steeper hills and also enjoyed listening to Pink Floyd on the way round.

"Sharking" in NYC with the long lost Martin Simmons at Stuart in the background at The Outback Bar

I pushed myself round whilst my fellow student in New York, Stuart Keighley would run round (the swine!).
Interesting to note that after the Pisa marathon (more on that later) I would eclipse Stuart’s best time – something that both he and I find utterly staggering!

And that was it! When I came back to the UK, I abandoned exercise again for what seemed to be an eternity.

The trouble was that I was naturally lean so ate what I wanted, drank what I wanted and lived my life as though I was an immortal.  And that’s how things continued for many years.