About me

I began this blog years ago as a way to practise my writing regularly. That regularity didn’t happen until the beginning of 2021 when one of my New Year’s resolutions actually stuck for some reason.

Why ‘the leadless pencil’? Because I could never think of things to write about. My block was because I tried and failed to write fiction. It seemed that I was pants at making stuff up and my dream of being a famous novelist died before it even began.

I finally kicked make-believe (and fame) into the bottom drawer and just started writing about reality, and especially my realities around running. I’m not sure when I became a running bore but despite the fact that I am relatively rubbish at it, I just love talking about it, and reading about it, and listening about it (currently working my way through all 600 episodes of the Marathon Talk podcast). Most of all, it appears that I enjoy writing about it.

Sometimes I write about other things, but it’s mainly about running. And keeping up with this blog has raised my love of writing to the point where I’m now in the middle of an MA in Creative Writing with the OU, which is quite exciting.

I live over the water from Liverpool, on the Wirral in a cozy house with my wife, Anne. We’re quite possibly close to the spot where England was formed, but quite possibly not.

I’m planning to have another go at running a marathon, or two, in 2023, as a present to myself for my 50th. So, regardless of whether I hate the training as much as I did when I tried marathon running back in 2015, I’ll at least have plenty to write about.