Running scared?

It's been a very strange, tragic week in London, and in some of the major cities in England.

Although I've had a good week with my training, in what is my last week before my marathon taper, the London riots have been all anyone has talked about, and I honestly didn't know what I could post on here which didn't end up trivialising everything that has happened.

Luckily, no longer living in town but being perfectly safe out in leafy Essex, I wasn't directly affected by any of the violence but I have lived in London, still work here, and consider myself very connected with our capital and watching the reports on TV and following the twitter and facebook updates, was truly sickening.  Unlike those poor people who had to try and stay safe inside their houses while the pandemonium raged outside, hoping that it wouldn't be their house that was set alight, when I just couldn't bear the devastation anymore, I was able to turn off the TV and go for a run.  It made me realise just how lucky I am to have found running, and to be living under the circumstances where whenever I want, I can get away from everything, to retreat into the serenity and personal space I find when I go out training, and on this particular night, was even able to run past the farmers working late into the night harvesting the wheat - an idyllic country scene.  It was truly a world away from the urban disaster movie that was playing out just 30 miles down the road!

This blog is not the place for me to go into my ideas on what caused the riots, the problems we currently see in certain sections of our community, what should be done, or how the country, politicians and local leaders should move forward after this. I do believe we all owe a debt of thanks to the emergency services who worked to bring some sanity back to the streets, and to all of those in the community who have pulled together, clearing up the mess, and donating goods and money to help those families who have been left with nothing.  However, I'll finish my post by saying that the whole episode has been frightening and shocking; my heart goes out to all of those innocent people who were affected, injured, made homeless, and most horrifically, killed.  I only hope this isn't the start of things to come.