Just loving the Evo - a real pb shoe!

The start of the Eastbourne ParkRun - this is the first anniversary run
which was celebrated a couple of weeks ago

TWO weeks into trialling the new Mizuno Evos and I'm buzzing. This morning I sauntered down to the Eastbourne Park Run - a 5km splash and dash along paths around the Shinewater and Hydneye lakes on the north-eastern outskirts of town.

It was the first time I had run in anger with the new Cursoris since my outings with the lightweight orange flash have been limited to cautious training runs around town in the revolutionary minimalist shoe.

I completed one impressive hill-based training session in midweek feeling surprisingly strong and refreshed. Because the shoe encourages you to run off your toes, and since they are so lightweight there was never a feeling of the heels dragging you backwards. I was more than made up with the hill reps believing this was a good platform to attack the Park Run.

I love the whole atmosphere of the Park Run series - it's informal, it's flat, it's fast and the only person whose performance matters is yours.

There were some quick whippets out there today among the 71 runners of all ages and abilities, including one teenage girl with legs like Bambi who breezed over the ground to finish in around 19 minutes.

Unlike my fellow Evo testers, I don't know a tremendous amount about the technical spec of these shoes we are putting through their paces. If you want to know more about the data behind these minimalist shoes then I suggest you take a look at one of the blogs or Tweets from one of my fellow testers.

I can only give write about performance and how they feel to a  pretty average runner who is moving out of the cushy comfort of his highly sprung sports shoe, to something which is close to running barefoot.


The Cursosis shoes - that's the toe of my sock bottom right!
You can see the tread on the sole of the shoe, but look at
the heel - it's like one of those old school plimsoles!! 

The Cursosis is so lightweight, and feels like carpet slippers. They are unlike any running shoe I have ever worn before. A totally new dimension.

They have a wide fitting, with a breathable mesh, and a 12mm heel to zero drop. In other words, there is no cushioning on the heel whatsoever. Turn the shoe upside down and look at the picture on the right of my dishevelled shoes. You can see the grip and tread on the sole, but on the heel it is bare. Yikes!

The purple Levitas shoe, which I will try for the first time tomorrow, is even more extreme. Described as a sprint, race shoe, it has an 8mm to zero drop.

I've been spoiled and pampered with my running, so used to the heel in my favoured shoes having lovely gel cushioning. I even used to fit heel pads at the back of my shoes to give my feet extra protection, backed by the snug fit of a heel collar. It's like being used to being wrapped in a warm 12 tog duvet to sleep in every night, and left with a threadbare horse hair prison blanket!

So, back to Park Run, and despite seeing Bambi sprint off in the distance, I knew I was going well with a 6min 38sec first mile. I tried to keep my pace consistent and the form steady, leaning forward and pushing off with my toes with every stride

One of my fellow Evo testers reckoned it takes four weeks to make the transition to the Mizuno Evo shoe which requires patience.

His tips include:

• All accomplished and elite runners run on the balls of their feet.
• The foot should strike the surface with the ball of the foot in a dorsi-flexed position (with toes pointing forward not downwards) otherwise this creates a" breaking" motion.
• The heel doesn't touch the ground.
• The foot on landing on the surface should be "light" not heavy, it then "grips and scrapes" the surface.
• The knee is slightly bent on contact with the surface and the foot lands below the centre of gravity - just below the hips.  Think of your leg working in a circular motion from the hip joint.
• This brings the heel of the foot behind the body. The hamstrings and gluteus maximus (backside muscles) play a very big part in this movement.

I have read this piece of wise wisdom a number of times, and did so again before setting out this morning. These tips are not easy to apply in the pressure cooker of a race, but I was very conscious of the need to avoid the heel touching the ground. Easier said than done and when running tired virtually impossible. But the principle is absolutely correct.

The 5km blast went perfectly. To some, my time of 20min 41sec may seem pedestrian, but I was well chuffed - my fastest Park Run ever for 13th place overall - not too bad for a guy a few weeks off his 50th birthday.

I've cut down on the sugar in my diet, I've lost a fair bit of weight too, and thanks to regular Wednesday night speed sessions along the seafront, my tempo runs are now much faster. But, the shoes do make a big difference. They are light, there is no heel drag, I can lift my heels even in the dying embers of a run, and they feel really comfortable.

The Litmus test, however, is distance. The furthest I have run in these shoes is seven miles. In two weeks' time I have the Eastbourne Half Marathon and then the biggie, the Reading Half in exactly four weeks. I am hoping that as I focus on form, the distance will come, and who knows what might happen over 13 miles.



And this is why I love Park Run. The lady with the dog was
running today and there were two ladies running with
babies in pushchairs - total legends

You've been Tangoed with the new Mizuno Evo - which weigh as light as one cup of rice!

Get the glare off those tracksters! Another of Eastbourne's homeless
 found resting on the prom wall with a natty pair of orange carpet slippers!

IT'S 6am and my feet are hurting. Outside, Eastbourne Pier is bathed in darkness and I can hear the waves crashing against the stoney shore. It's also pretty cold out.

Twelve hours ago, I was down by the pier running along the prom with my friends David and Helen trying out my new pair of running shoes which had arrived that morning in the office.

I was like an excited kid at Christmas as I opened not one but two Mizuno boxes containing pristine shoes, wrapped in paper and smelling lush.

Call the fashion police straight away. I don't know if Mizuno designed the shoes believing runners might encounter foggy pea-soupers on their morning runs, but you certainly can't hide with the brash orange and purple designs which stand out like Belisha beacons.

I've always thought of sporty-types who wear flash coloured footwear as prissy and total yankers. You could be sure in a football match anyone not wearing regulation black boots would be taken out with a fair, but meaty follow-through tackle within the first five minutes of a game.

As far as running is concerned, I'm not sure if the orange and purple shoes conform to my Colour Me Beautiful profile - I've always thought I was autumn colours!

So, for those of you joining this blog for the first time wondering what is the guy waffling on about?

The story is that the footwear company Mizuno has invited a dozen experienced runners from a variety of backgrounds to try out their new minimalist running shoes: the Wave Evo Cursosis, latin name MegaOrangeus and the Wave Evo Levitas, latin name Hecknocushioninusque.

For years, runners have been pampered with these snug-fitting, super cushioned, mega shock absorbant shoes, but the science is asking why are we still getting repetitive injuries and why are our bodies not running naturally. In fact, isn't the best way of running injury-free and running naturally is to run barefoot, just as we did as young children.

So, the footwear companies have come up with the minimalist concept - one step away from running in the total pink and crinkly and protecting your feet from dog poo, fast food wrappers and broken bottles as you pound the pavements.

Over the next five weeks, this daring dastardly dozen are trying out the gruesome twosome from the Mizuno minimalist stable, leading to the Reading Half Marathon on Sunday, March 17 where we will gather as one and see how our feet stand up to 13.1 miles of hard core running.

So last night was the first outing. I tried the Cursosis. I've just Googled the word in case it means something like "runs like the wind but looks like a Tango ad". Instead I get links to a lot of dodgy Spanish websites!!

I'm not going to write too much about my experience now, because I need to have a couple of runs to get a feel for the shoes. We ran six miles out and back along the prom at just under eight minute mile pace.

The shoes are light as a feather, well just 205 grammes - the equivalent of one cup of rice - they fit really well and as you walk in them it feels like you are walking in a pair of slippers or crocs. The running sensation is interesting!

The one noticeable aspect of the run was that towards the end I was more able to pick up my tired feet and stride. I wasn't laden by the heavy soles of my traditional Asics.

The morning after the night before, my feet feel a little sore. They've had a bit of a pounding, but I'm not put off. This is an interesting journey of discovery, something new for my running and maybe it might change the way I run. Who knows!

Here's a link to the Mizuno site for the new shoes: www.mizuno.eu/en/sports/running/products/discoverevo

And these are my fellow Mizuno runners, check them out on Twitter with updates and links to their blogs :

@Mizuno_Running
@theRunningEd
@gofasterfood
@Boshrun
@kimingleby
@BePrettyFit
@NatRunClinic
@Ashton378
@JuliaArmstrong
@sammymargo
@lewychalk



Never mind the supplements, a Mars Bar is the best way to run a marathon

MARS Bar and Lucozade drink for breakfast before a run? The nutritionists would be spitting in horror on their cream cheese wholemeal bagels and liquidised fruit mush. But I was on the fly this morning before a sun-kissed 5km outing at the Eastbourne ParkRun.

Of course breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Pick up a copy of Runner’s World and every month there is the latest high-carb, high-protein, high nutritional value, hi-ho-silver lining recipe which all runners should adopt to improve their performance and shave minutes off their personal bests. But do we pay a blind bit of notice? Nah!

It’s ironic that a week ago I spent an hour or so chatting with runners who are training for April’s London Marathon and raising money for the Hampshire Autistic Society – and there we talked about diet and hydration.

I certainly didn’t let them into the secrets of my crazy pre-run breakfast habits, but advised them instead of the need to take on nutritional fuel for breakfast ahead of a run; whether that is porridge, cereal, toast and bagels, and certainly avoid the Little Chef Olympic Breakfast. I also spoke with a 9.45am London Marathon start in mind to have a pre-race ritual firmly instilled of taking food and drink if you can before a race – mine is a protein bar, banana and an isotonic drink.

It’s not text book, and there are far better minds with degrees and the title “Dr” before their name to advise on proper nutrition, but this works for me.

These annual January talks are something I enjoy giving. We always catch up over a curry following the race for tales and traumas over a nan bread and a hot Madras!

You can see the mixture of fear and excitement in the runners’ faces at these winter meetings. All of them were marathon virgins just setting out on this great adventure. All had a host of questions to ask about training plans, kit, where the drinks stations are and what actually happens at the start, where does your luggage go to and where can you meet friends and family at the end in Horse Guards Parade.

All I could say is that the months ahead would be hard, but the reward at the end of this journey would be enormous when completing your first marathon will be a life-defining moment.

The talk was pretty predictable – the sort of chat all marathons novices will receive, including paying close attention to the training schedule by ensuring their legs and bodies get miles in the bank. I always throw in a few unofficial extras; things like how to avoid runner’s nipple or using Vaseline to prevent sweat from dripping in your eyes and aid with wearing sunglasses, if you need them.

However as part of my pre-race marathon preparation, I always take a couple of Imodium tablets to prevent bowel embarrassment along the route, and I also carry an anti-inflammatory Voltarol tablet to take at around 15 or 16 miles when my body is really suffering. Maybe it acts as a placebo, but the painkiller really helps me to deal with the trauma of the last nine or ten miles.

Okay, that last part is not recommended. It’s what I do having been recommended by other runners and they work for me.

Yet that advice was put into context this week with the inquest into the death of Claire Squires. She was the 30-year-old London Marathon runner who suffered heart failure and collapsed a few hundred metres from the end of the race last April.

The inquest heard that Claire had taken an energy supplement called Jack 3D. This is a sports supplement containing the stimulant DMAA, known as dimethylamylamine, which had previously been linked to the deaths of two American soldiers. The drink is commonly used as a work-out aid or a weight-loss supplement.

At the time of her death, there was no ban on taking this supplement. But Claire had added a scoop of Jack 3D to her water bottle to give her an energy boost for when she hit the preverbial runner’s wall in the latter stages of the race. It was an innocent act from a woman who her boyfriend, Simon Van Herrewege, said was passionately against the use of drugs.

It is ironic that four months after Claire’s death, Jack 3D and other supplements containing DMAA were banned from being sold in this country on the grounds of the potential risks to public safety after it had been linked to heart attacks.

Walk into Boots, Holland & Barrett or any similar shop and you can see shelf after shelf of  supplements - tablets, bars, and drinks for a variety of uses from building muscle to helping with weight loss.

Apart from taking glucosamine to treat a tender iliotibial band, I’ve never been tempted to buy any of these supplements, legitimate as they are. You could clear the shelf of supplements believing they would transform your life, enhance your health, drop a couple of stone and rid you of those niggling ailments. I’ve never thought about the science that much – I just run and get on with it.

I agree with Simon Van Herrewege who said after the inquest how there needs to be far great supervision of the health foods and supplements industry. There also needs to be greater education about these supplements and their value. It is a minefield when you look at that shelf stacked with supplements. Where do you start?

A simple Imodium or Voltarol tablet does what it says on the packet. It is safe, it’s legal and it isn’t going to enhance performance - crikey, I need a V2 rocket shoved up my jacksey if I wanted to see any real improvement to my personal best and I think there may be a health and safety issues there!

At the Hampshire Autistic Society talk, I spoke about the need to hydrate well, taking the isotonic drinks every five miles and water too – sipping but not drinking hard. And if you need a boost, take a gel or a protein snack, or in my case a bag of Jelly Babies, a Mars Bar and a chunk of sugary Kendal Mint Cake.

And you know what, when you get that sugar rush from a handful of Jelly Babies, you can keep your expensive and convoluted supplements – they get me to the finish line.

Claire Squires

I run like a hippo and have the backside to match!

Man running on the treadmill with head cut off - very arty!

WATCHING the video re-run closely, the guy running on the treadmill looked ridiculous. Fat backside wobbling all over the shop like a firm blancmange, hips swaying with the running style of a waddling hippopotamus.

That couldn't be me, surely. But it was!!

I felt embarrassed watching myself being put through my paces by Paul Bartlett; small in stature but a whippet-like runner who can rattle off 10km in 34 minutes. Paul is the lead coach and manager of Running School Southampton, whose office is situated in a room at the back of the Sweatshop store in the town centre.

The Running School franchise promises to help runners stay injury-free, improve running technique and increase your speed whatever the sport.

So it was last weekend while I was helping out at the Stubbington 10k road race that I bumped into a running colleague who had read this blog about the trial I'm planning to make of the minimalist Mizuno shoe, the Evo.

My friend warned how I might need to consider a transition before trying the shoe because of the issues it might bring to my running.

After struggling with injury himself for the past couple of years, he said he had come to the conclusion after reading various pieces of literature, and speaking to both his podiatrist and physio, that it's running form and technique which are the most important things for running efficiently and avoiding injury.

But before then, why not get down to the Running School and get your gait analysed, he suggested.

So there I was on Friday afternoon with Paul who put me on the treadmill, set it up for 11 kilometres an hour and then videoed me running. It was a very self conscious thing to do as he used his camera to take different angles of my running/waddle on the treadmill.

We then examined the footage on his laptop, and it was clear that I have some major running issues which I need to consider when I embark on trialling this new shoe.

Using screen graphics to draw various lines across the screen as he slowed the film down, Paul demonstrated how I was using my calves too much and not my hamstring or glutes enough. This was down, he said to the office-based working lifestyle I was leading, sitting at a computer for most of the day.

Paul Bartlett spots a common running complaint
known as the hippopotamus bottom wobble!

The calves are a small muscle which should not be used primarily for running because they will become tight. I could also sustain an injury, Paul warned, and I will certainly not get any faster. Whereas, by primarily using the hamstrings and glutes for the power, these muscles take a lot longer to tire while running and yet will generate more speed.

As the camera moved to look at my feet, Paul spotted how I was overstriding, in other words placing one foot way in front of a centre of gravity.

"This will cause a braking force and you will lose one inch per stride," he explained. "Take a marathon, for example, but if you lose one inch per stride than means you have already lost about 10 minutes.

"This style of running also carries a lot of injury risks because of the force which hits the legs each time. Again, using the marathon as an example, you will take on average 44,000 steps and that is going to hurt somewhere eventually."

I wasn't feeling very confident by this stage. In fact, I was wondering how had I ever managed to reel off 50 plus half marathons, scores of races or completed three marathons during a rather inauspicious running career.

The hippopotamus running style wasn't missed either. Cruelly, Paul honed right in there by pointing out the bobbing hip movement which he explained was wasting a lot of energy. "It also means your glutes are inactive so when your hips drop as you land this puts a strain on your legs and lower back."

Any more good news?!! Oh, go on then.

"Your arms are not going forward," Paul added. "They come back fine, so storing lots of energy up, but they are the not using it. It's like playing golf and stopping before you hit the ball. The arms propel the body forwards and what they do will impact on everything else."

Well, no wonder I don't play golf!

Right, so I might as well give up running and take up backgammon I reckoned. My running style was laughable, the injury potential was extreme - retire now while you can walk and have got your dignity intact

Paul said that there was a solution and the way they do this at the Running School was to re-model the running style to become more efficient by stimulating your nervous system. "The way you are running at the moment is habit.

"This is because that system is predicting what is going to happen, so you need to change this over six weeks because any habit in the body takes six weeks to be broken. Anything less is ineffective and you will go straight back to what you did before. It is the same for everyone, no matter how long you have been doing it, whether you are one-year-old or 100!!"

To be fair, Paul kept his counsel about running in minimalist shoes, but I could sense he wasn't convinced. He reckoned that because I rely on my calves to do the majoriy of my running, the new shoes will put ever more strain on them. However, if I could get my hamstrings and glutes working well, especially with the forefoot landing, these would suit minimal shoes. 

Paul has offered me a six week course to arrest this ruinous running raggedness. It's not cheap - we're talking over £200 even with a discount, but I have a feeling it may be worth giving it a try.

Paul Barlett from the Running School Southampton (left) with some guy who wears
 his tracksuit bottoms as high as Simon Cowell! Call the fashion police!!

 

 

Forget those comfortable running shoes, I'm going barefoot!

The Tarahumara strike out in the unforgiving terrain of the Sierra Madre Occidental

THERE is a tribe in Mexico called the Tarahumara. You've probably never heard of them before, and why should you? But in the running world, these mystical and somewhat reclusive guys are Gods.

The Tarahumara, or Rarámuri, as they are sometimes known, live in the unforgiving and mountainous areas of north-western Mexico. This is rough canyon country on the high sierras in a region known as Sierra Madre Occidental where the running terrain is tough and the heat can fry an egg in minutes.

Translated, Rarámuri means "runners on foot" or "those who run fast", but what makes these guys so special is their ability to run long without the aid of modern day technology - no fancydan footwear, no neat isotonic drinks or gels, no specialist dieticians or exercise practitioners.

In fact, their amazingly healthy diet of pinole (a coarse flour made from ground toasted maize kernels) mixed with beans, such as pinto beans, squash, chilli peppers, wild green and chia (nutritional seed drawn from the mint family) is reckoned to reduce cancers among the tribe.

No, these mere mortals can just take off and run up to 200 miles in one session, sometimes for up to two days. It's their way of transporting goods, communicating between villages, and also how they hunt.

These modern day Forrest Gumps also run for fun with tribal events known as rarajipari, which is a sort of foot-throwing race where balls are kicked by the runners in relays, and at the changeover points team-mates run ahead to the next handover. Sometimes these races can last for a couple of days without a break. It's crazy!

Christopher McDougall wrote one of the most absorbing running books ever a few years ago called "Born To Run" where he sets out to find the world's greatest ultra-distance athletes and to run with them. Born from the premise that as a runner himself why does he keep getting these aches and pains in his foot, McDougall wonders how the Tarahumara can keep on running while spurning the latest in modern footwear, gizmos and gadgets.

The book is an absolute revelation. McDougall discovers how the Tarahumara use the toe strike method of running, which is a natural style for barefoot running. Crucially, the book dismisses the multi-billion pound running shoe industry by insisting that modern technology, with cushioned shoes, designed to incorporate pronation and all sorts of running styles, hasn't helped eliminate muscular injuries.

He quotes one leading athletics coach, Vin Lananna, who was based at Stanford University, who once said: "I can't prove this, but I believe when my runners train barefoot, they run faster and suffer fewer injuries."

Working on the notion that modern running shoes have now shielded our feet from their natural position by providing more and more support, McDougall controversially outlines what he describes as three painful running truths:

 

• The best shoes are the worst.
• Feet like a good beating.
• Human beings are designed to run without shoes

The Tarahumara don't exactly go Zola Budd by wearing nothing at all on the soles of their feet. They wear sandals instead, which are non-cushioned, but offer protection against getting cut on the soles of your feet.



The Tarahumara sandal

So it's no surprise that in response to McDougall's book, which questioned the whole principle of buying expensive, highly cushioned running shoes, that the manufacturers have gone back to the drawing board to come up with what they describe as minimalist shoes to simulate barefoot running.

Since reading McDougall's book, I've been fascinated by this phenomenon, but have not yet been brave enough to take the plunge into barefoot running - until now!

I've been invited by Mizuno to try out their new Wave Evo Levitas which is being launched this month. A group of experienced runners from a variety of backgrounds have been asked to train with them over the next couple of months before taking part in the Mizuno-sponsored Reading Half Marathon in March.

We're being asked to blog and Tweet about the whole experience which is probably going to redefine our running styles. I am excited, although a little anxious too about how I will fare with the new shoes.

But ultimately, the science make sense. Running barefoot strengthens your feet and is a more natural way to run. As I read from one blogger, "running in cushioned, motion-controlled shoes is like having your neck in a cast for a month - when you take the case off, your neck muscles will be weak".

So over the next few weeks, by blog will become more running centric than usual. I would be interested in your comments and advice. Are there exercises I can do, how should I prepare and what are some of the tips you may have found from running with minimalist shoes?

Email me at: peekay63@hotmail.co.uk or follow me on Twitter on @RunningPeekay

You can also follow other running guinea pigs, some of whom look much faster and prettier than me at:

• @jonmackintosh
• @gofasterfood
• @Boshrun
• @kimingleby
• @BePrettyFit
• @NatRunClinic
• @Ashton378
• @JuliaArmstrong
• @sammymargo

And here's a link to what the new shoes look like - love the colours!

www.mizuno.eu/sports/running/products/discoverevo



The new Wave Evo Levitas

Mike Atherton: a quality journalist and an interesting character

IT is hard to imagine what it must be like to be a cricketer standing at the crease in a Test match arena with 40,000 spectators watching you, facing down a guy who is trying to knock your block off from 22 yards with a 100 mile an hour missile.

It's hard to imagine how you could do that for 10 hours, in blistering hot conditions in South Africa, watched by millions of television viewers worldwide.

Mike Atherton's unbeaten 185 in 643 minutes at the Wanderers ground in Johnannesburg in 1995 is rated as one of the finest knocks by an English batsman. It salvaged a draw for England and began the first of Atherton's duels with the great South African fast bowler, Allan Donald.

Three years later, the return took place at Trent Bridge in a do-or-die final 40 minute session of a Test match which England went on to win when Atherton survived a justified appeal for a gloved catch. The England batsman later signed the offending glove for Donald to raffle during his benefit year.

The fact that Atherton has been there and played at the highest level is what makes him one of the best sportswriters of his generation - now cricket correspondent for The Times, and also a broadcaster with Sky TV.

This week he turned up at the University of Brighton in Eastbourne to deliver a 90-minute talk to students and cricket lovers about his career and sports in general.

Mike Atherton doesn't tell too many jokes. It's hard to imagine the former England cricket captain would light up a dressing room after a hard day's play with a few bawdy tales and one-liners to his colleagues. One suspects he was a bit of a loner.

There were certainly not belly-aching anecdotes about the antics of 14-year career which saw him play 115 Test matches for his country. He spoke about depression in sport, why he believed that money invested in the London Olympics could have been better spent on providing new schools and hospitals, how he approved of the use of technology in sport, and even why he is useless at gambling!

Interestingly, at a lecture hosted by the university's journalism department and attended by many journalism students, Atherton was asked how he felt about taking up a second profession without any training at all. "But what training do I need?" he asked, pointing out how he was used to writing 5,000 word university dissertations in three hours and so appreciated the value of deadlines, how he was widely read and how he also knew his sport.

It was a fair comeback, notably when he hit back with the post-Leveson barb questioning how many journalists working today had received formal training.

It is hard to argue against Atherton since, as an award-winning journalist, he has proved his qualities of writing and objectivity beyond doubt.

In the cricketing world, he has followed the likes of Mike Selvey, Derek Pringle and Angus Fraser who have swapped cricket ball for laptops to carve out successful careers as sports writers. What qualities they share which their fellow hacks don't is an appreciation of playing the sport at the highest level, truly understanding the pressures of those who they are reporting on.

I don't agree with Atherton's assertion about training, however.

Does he know the laws of defamation and contempt, copyright, or the laws governing social media? How knowledgeable is he about public administration with the running of local and central government or the governing of sports? Does he truly understand the science of writing, or the relationships between news media and social media, and how is his 100 words a minute shorthand or does he just record interviews with a microphone?

I offer the briefest of overviews about a sports journalist's training. It's not namby-pamby study, it is industry relevant.

What relevance does law have to sports journalism, you may ask? - the answer is Harry Redknapp, John Terry and Anton Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs, Lance Armstrong and the Sheffield United football Ched Evans who was convicted of rape for starters.

What I find uncomfortable is the increasing number of ex-sportsmen and women who muscle their way into journalism; print, radio or television - on the back of being a name and whose career is then fast-tracked to the top. As analysts, absolutely. Their insight and knowledge can be absorbing, their objectivity less so and their questioning banal. Let's call it the Sally Gunnell factor.

Atherton made one interesting point about the use of social media and how, when you looked around a press box, few journalists were actually watching a game, they were heads down with their laptop writing updated copy for the website, blogging or Tweeting. "I would have thought the priority would be to watch the game and understand the game," said Atherton, who has little compunction to Tweet or sees that value of joining the Twitterati. Why should anyone be interested in a knee-jerk reaction? Shouldn't journalism be about considered opinions set in context? Absolutely!

Interestingly, Atherton looked back on his previous life as a Test match cricketer with some affection, but not a huge amount of warmth. That is what he did in the past yet he has moved on since then, he insists. He has not retained any memorabilia in his home, there are no photographs lining the walls or adorning mantlepieces of his greatest innings.

It's a measure of the man that he is very focused and he is an individual who made his name in a team sport.

It is why Mike Atherton has made it to the top in both of his chosen professions.

Old school covering an FA Cup tie!

One of the hardest reporting jobs facing any journalist is the live report dictated on the hoof.

When I first started out as a journalist, and before the age of mobiles, this would involve standing in a draughty phone box, putting ten pence pieces into a slot while reading across a court story to a copy taker off the top of your head while trying to read back scratchy shorthand notes.

With a deadline fast approaching, it was a seat of the pants job, especially if the phone box had its windows smashed in and your voice was competing with passing traffic or an impatient lady who wanted her turn.

In later years the challenge would be to produce running copy stretching to over 1,500 words from a football ground for that afternoon's Saturday sports paper.

 

My first runner was Sheffield Wednesday versus Norwich City at Hillsborough for the Pink Un and I was absolutely bricking it. I'd produced running copy for non-league football matches with ease, but this was a whole new ball game.

Hillsborough was packed with 25,000 fans and you could not prepare anything in advance, you had to wing it by reading across your account to the patient copytaker down the end of the phone, knowing that every paragraph and sentence would be dissected later that evening by long-suffering Canaries' fans who had faithfully queued up to buy the Pink Un at six 'o clock every Saturday evening.

The only advance preparation you would scribble down in the second half was the five paragraph intro depending on which way the game was going – and if it was tight, you'd write three intros; win, lose or draw! Two or three goals in the last five minutes became a total nightmare.

But this was the challenge and I've always regarded the best journalists are sports reporters who can wing it with their copy, in tough conditions where they don't have the advantage of TV replays and when they're having to multi-task by watching a match, taking notes, and reading across copy.

Time has moved on, of course, and although I have covered hundreds of football matches, in recent times there has been less case to do so as my job was changed. Until this weekend, that is, when I was on Teesside for the FA Cup third round clash between Middlesbrough and non-league Hastings United.

Sadly, many of the Saturday evening sports papers have closed, and the technology has changed too.

 

Mobile phones and laptops littered the tightly squeezed press box at the Riverside, reporters filing match day copy for a variety of media including newspapers, websites and for social media. The days of the gnarled but worldy-wise copytaker has long gone – it's a laptop or the latest 3G phone which will suffice.

In East Sussex, this was big news with Hastings United, the most inexperienced team left in the world's most prestigious football competition, taking on the mighty Boro. Now with the wonder of websites, along with Twitter and Facebook, this means that the match was a live event.

We sent a team to Teesside of reporters and photographers, including one scribe who joined the fans on theitr 6am, seven-hour coach trip from the south coast to the north-east. He even had a coach fire to report! And with a recent roll-out of new laptops and mobile phones, we thought this would be a great opportunity to try out the kit in all its glory.

Sadly, it was to be one of those hugely frustrating days when technology lets you down badly. The laptops and mobile phones worked a treat, but could any of us log into the newspaper's secure editorial system? Could we heck!

 

We tried various fixes to get into the system, but to no avail, while those around us, including the rival Argus paper from Brighton, were filing copy merrily.

In the end I took an executive decision midway through the first half to leave my colleagues sitting in the press area.

 

I had headed up to the north-east under my own steam to stay with friends nearby. I called a friend to pick me up from the Riverside, and with laptop in hand I swiftly headed out of the stadium to the bemusement of the stewards since the game was still finely in the balance. I jumped into the car and at breakneck speed we drove back to my friend's home.

There I fortunatley managed to log into the editorial system and we went old school!

 

Yep, I became that gnarled, world-weary copytaker, as my colleagues read their match day copy across to me which I could then file onto the internet. I was thinking about some of my favourite copytakers; there was Jan and Eric at the Portsmouth News, pedantic so-and-sos who thought they could write better than you - and probably could - who always wanted to finish a sentence for you or change some words. They were pretty good too at filling in words.

 

It was strange to see the editorial world turn full circle, but it had to be done to get the copy uploaded swiftly. It wasn't ideal, but we got there in the end.

You can have all the technology you want, but sometimes old habits die hard!