Whilst watching a colourised re-run of the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final from Wembley on television recently, I began to think about mascots. Born in the late 1970s I have no memories of England's World Cup victory, but my father still has a denim cap with a cartoon lion on it wearing a Union Jack shirt. The lion was...

Today I ran my 250th milestone parkrun in 35:54. It was an opportunity to do something different I've never done before and probably never again: a barefoot 5k run around the Denbies vineyard where Mole Valley parkrun takes place! I received some encouraging comments as I plodded along grass, mud trails and some stony sections over God's good...

Last week on February the first ...

In 1954 Roger Bannister ran the first ever sub-four minute mile at Iffley track, Oxford. He held his world record for six weeks until his great rival John Landy of Australia broke it by one second with a time of 3 minutes 58 seconds. Later that year Bannister and Landy met in the final of the One Mile at...

My wife saw someone walking a dog on a muddy Common last week. The dog was barefooted and so was the walker. We both wondered what the walker did to avoid treading mud into their floors once home. Use a garden hose? Put footwear on? Walk to the bathroom with plastic bags over their feet? For humans, barefooted movement...

Why does the last mile feel so long? Is it because in a half marathon when you pass the 12 mile marker there are 1.1 miles still to go and that extra 100 metres messes with my head? Or it might just be that after 12 miles my legs begin to anticipate having a rest and they just slow down! ...

It is almost one year since the violent terror attack on Israel by Hamas. The horrific event last October became the biggest single incident of Jewish killings since the Second World War. The subsequent Israeli military strikes have led to a humanitarian crisis, particularly in Gaza. As well as being shocked at the tragedy of so many innocent...

Sport can bring out the best and the worst of us - love and respect, but also anger and antagonism.

A new cricket season has arrived! The Code of Conduct for the club I am a member of includes a membership commitment to: treat everyone equally and not discriminate on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, nationality, class,...

Is it unconscious bias that has led me to remember more of Eric Liddell's story than of Harold Abrahams when I think of the film Chariots of Fire? Maybe it was Liddell's genuine Christian faith that caused me to be more interested in him. So I have been researching Harold Abrahams. His father, Isaac Klonimus, was a Lithuanian...