If you are one of Barnets Top Tories, next time you get all cross about something I've said, just remember this. If it wasn't for the last Tory to run the GLC, Horace Cutler, I probably wouldn't be here.
I hadn't really appreciated this fact until yesterday at around 12.30pm. I was driving my boy to a Gaelic Football match in East London, listening to Ken Livingstone on 97.3. He was talking about the London marathon and he said that everyone had forgotten that it was Horace Cutlers baby. He pushed through the idea, against fierce opposition, not least from Ken. Ken admitted that Horace was right and he was wrong on this one. At the time of the first marathon in 1981, I had no interest whatsoever.
In 1987, I decided that I would run it, the following year. I started a harsh regime of training, based on a Seb Coe plan. My goal was to run in under 3 hours. By February, I was well on the way to achieving my goal. I had managed to get a great level of fitness and in those days, didn't have an ounce of fat. Then disaster struck. I had arranged to go to watch Plymouth Argyll vs Man City with an old friend. I got up at 7am to get a train and whilst crossing the Edgware Road at Burnt Oak, a car jumped the lights, travelling at 40mph & hit me.
It was a rather strange experience. Realising the car would hit me, time moved very slowly. The strangest thought that wen't through my head was that it would be great to see my dad, who'd died the previous year. Then survival instincts kicked in & I jumped. The car hit me on the thigh, my feet went through the windscreen, I rolled over the roof and landed on my head. Strangely I was still alive. I got up, jumped in the car and demanded to be taken to edgware general. The driver complied.
Until this point, I'd not really understood the concept of extreme pain. I was given a blast of Morphine a head X-ray (no damage) six stitches in my little finger and a general look over. By the time a policeman turned up to tell me that the driver had admitted jumping the lights at 40mph and was in pieces I was as high as a kite. He asked if I wanted to press charges. No I said, "HE'S A LOVELY BLOKE". I was just pleased to be alive.
By 4pm, I was back home, alone with my pain killers. The Doctors had told me that only my extreme fitness had saved me. The thick muscle on my thighs had protected me and spared greater damage. My thigh swelled to three times the usual size. Subsequently I found I had a stress fracture of my L2 vertebrae and a hairline fracture below the knee. I became a left footed footballer, as I can't really use my right leg properly. I also probably lost 1 hour off my best possible marathon time. Since then I've cared passionately about road safety.
If it hadn't been for Horace Cutler and his mad scheme, I'd at best be a cripple, more likely dead. The Doctors at Edgware told me that they'd never seen someone walk in who'd been hit by a car travelling at 40 mph before. Sometimes being unique isn't that great really.
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