Ultimate Gym Membership

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

The pool is heated to 27 degrees - slightly lower than a normal leisure pool. Hopefully, it will contain less toddler wee too.

After many threats (all of which turned out to be largely hollow) I have finally joined a gym. The good people at the Oxford University Sports Centre are the lucky blighters who will have the pleasure of my huffing, puffing, heavily sweating presence in the coming months as I train for the various events I need to complete.

The facilities are ideal for my needs – in addition to the standard things you’d expect to find at a gym (pool, power-lifting room, running, cycling, rowing machines, tennis courts, squash courts) they also have an athletics track - or, as I like to think of it, the athletics track.

Almost 51 years ago, on a cold and breezy May evening, Sir Roger Bannister (just plain Roger in those days) hurled himself round the Iffley Road track four times (a mile) in less than four minutes, thereby becoming the first human being ever to do so – or, the first human being to do so in the presence of a stopwatch-wielding Norris McWhirter at any rate.


Bannister has an enormous nose and skinny legs - maybe I've found my milieu.

I haven’t yet ventured out onto the track to run, but when I do for the first time I will be running four laps to see what all the fuss is about.