need a kick up the backside ?

[2nd row]

   The government should NOW print, publish,and put up photographs of PAULA RADCLIFFE  in every school throughout the uk.... with the words.. " YES ! ..YOU CAN  DO IT " !!  dont you agree ? any other better role model ? asked a youngster the other day " why he wasn't out running an' training with the rest of the rugby team "?.... " 'cos it's raining ",he replied ....and then , took a fag out of his pocket and lit it up !! what the heck is happening out there with our youngsters ?

[ICEMANSAV]

She gave up didn't she? Bill Gates would be a better one " Be a nerd and earn the absurd!!!"

[FP]

2nd Row, I am far from being one of today's youngsters and I admit to hiding in the cloakrooms when it was time for hockey.  Rain, Mud and loads of mad aggressive girls running about swiping out with their hockey sticks, ughh!!!  I can't say I blame the young man in question (I didn't used to smoke though). 

 

My son absolutely hated rugby at school and got out of it whenever he could. 

[FP]

I don't think Paula Radcliffe is a good role model to put up in schools.  Like a lot of today's female athletes she has overdone things and looks positively anorexic! 

 

[cheyenne]

Shes just won the new york marathon,i dont think she could have done that if she was 20 stone.it took guts to come back like she did.As for schools these days, Bring back the cane,it didnt do me any harm.well apart from the fact i still miss it,any offers!! no only joking.

[Slainte]

I think she would make an excellent role model.  She spent years running middle distance events not winning much, but she persisted and found an event that she excels at and she is somone we should all be proud of.

As for giving up, I doubt anyone will ever know or understand what happened in Athens but she ran a fantastic race yesterday even though most people thought she shouldn't have raced again this season.

Besides, a good role model isn't flawless and infallible as you need to identify with her faults to make sense of your own mistakes.

As for looking anorexic - I don't think her build looks any different from other long distance runners, and she certainly doesn't look like that when she isn't training - remember the Sports Personality of the Year Awards?

[archbishop]

2nd row. Do I know you?

[2nd row]

    Yeah  Archbishop, you do know me , i was the one that clipped you across the ear'ole after you lit that fag up !!! know me ? doubt it brother,

[FP]

2nd Row.  Are you a teacher in a school.  I am wondering why you would go up to a lad to ask him this question anyway.  It wouldn't perchance be to antagonise would it?!

[Hayhoe]

from the telegraph, following athens:

Nor should we forget her team-mate Tracey Morris, who ran in the same heat and up the same hills as Radcliffe to finish 29th only to be totally ignored by Fleet Street. ... But no, it is poor, distraught, anguished, heroic (I could go on but you get the drift) Radcliffe sitting in a gutter by the side of the road on whom we are expected to bestow the laurel leaf for Olympic gallantry.
Call me a cynic, but the way I see it is that unless the medics in Athens can come up with a physical reason why she quit just over three miles from the finish, Radcliffe stopped running and started blubbing for the simple reason that she had just seen gold, silver and bronze medals disappear into the distance.

 

[2nd row]

  thank you hayhoe for your reply, all the others too, this is what a/b is all about,  the right to air/ give our own views/poinions, be a waste of time and space if we all agreed on every subject on every 'site' ... of course my ones do/will differ from others, i expect this, a teacher once said to me " it's not that you stand up to give an answer, be it right or wrong, but that you have the courage, the confidence to stand up at all, to speak, "... another one said " when attempting to complete an exam paper, even if you dont know the answer, put anything down, at least it shows the examiner that you read the question " .. now to yours, and only a real long distance runner could answer this,,, in such a big race, the pressures ? not only on your fittness/health, but your mind, what are you thinking about ,out there alone, all them miles, what if ( say) Paula had argued with her husband the morning of the race ? her pet dog had died the day before ? a member of her family was seriously ill ? what is going through the mind of that long distance road runner ? what are they thinking about ? is Paula pregnant ? can one completely shut off their mind for all those miles ? what happens in that one split second,it opens, and all them wondering/awful thoughts come flooding in ?  i certainly cannot answer, can you?  and yet, forgetting all what happened in Athens, All my praise was bestowed upon Paula because she had just won the N/Y marathon,, IF it had been anyone else, no matter where from, my congratulations and praise would have gone out to them, i watch, in envy, the LONDON Marathon every year, i laugh and i cry, i could NEVER do it, and i applaud, salute, admire each and every one of those who take part..... but what is giong through the one, way out in front, all alone, all them miles ?