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Everything posted by Maximus Decimus
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I completely agree. I have my own personal reasons why it hit home so much, but I too have never been so upset over someone I never met. To people who aren't RL fans, I always explain that he was truly a player who despite being in a dominant Leeds team was liked by pretty much everyone. I think it was partly to do with his genuinely humble nature but he was also respected for achieving the way he did against the odds. He was pretty much always the smallest man on the pitch but always one of the best. RIP Rob, a true legend.
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And he wins it in style...
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Thanks for this. Now the dust has settled, I'm taking the positives from it. The one big niggle is the quitting. I genuinely never considered it as an option. I thought I could get injured and stop but not in that way. I suppose my fear is I've done it once so it'll be easier to do it again now I know it is an option. I'm starting to think about my next attempt. I hope there are no women reading this, but I expect it's a little like childbirth. As I was running, I thought I might never do it again and laughed at the idea of a marathon (something I'd considered before). Now it's like I remember it was hard but I fancy giving it another go. I'm also still thinking of a marathon for next year, but knowing I'll end up walking. A part of me wants to do it again soon like 3/4 weeks, just on my own on a cool wet day around Widnes. Just to prove to myself that I could have finished.
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So I did my first half-marathon on Sunday in Chester to very mixed results. Unfortunately, I didn't take my own advice on this very page by not giving myself a time target - this was very much my undoing. I've been on a running plan for 13 weeks using Runna and lulled myself into the idea that the sub 2-hour time was more than achievable. After all, it is only an average of 5:41 per km, which isn't a particularly challenging pace as I can do a 10k in around 50 minutes and I'd gone up to 18km without much difficulty. The plan was to run at a pretty steady 5:20-5:30 with a view to banking the time to negate the inevitable slow down after 16km or so. I'd been keeping an eye on the forecast with trepidation as it seemed to be predicting hotter and hotter and so it ended up. I'm warm-blooded and prefer running very light and in the cold. I didn't let it bother my preparations though and went in feeling positive about it. I think one of my issues, was that I haven't been in enough races recently including Parkrun etc. I felt thrown off by the big crowd and was quite boxed-in for the first 2k only averaging 5:44. This meant I tried to speed up once I got free and inevitably went too fast as a result. I also found it difficult to switch off, I'm usually very good at processing my thoughts while running which helps to pass the time. At about 15km, I started to realise that I probably wasn't going to hit the 2-hour time. I was tiring fast and hadn't banked the time. This was when I first got the urge to stop, something I literally never do. The heat wasn't helping either. Fortunately, I reached a water station and managed to plough on feeling confident I would get to the end. However, it quickly unravelled. At 20km, I was passed by the guy holding the 2-hour sign and turned the corner to find myself at the bottom of a big unshaded hill. I'd previously done a 10k in Chester and remembered it ending with a killer hill. So I stopped and walked it; I just couldn't face it. I ran the final 500m to finish in 2hr 3 minutes. I still can't quite believe that I stopped with 1km to go. I couldn't face maximum 7 minutes of discomfort after running for over 110 minutes. After the initial disappointment, I feel OK about it now and I'm treating it as part of a learning curve. I was looking at my Garmin today, and for some reason for 68% of the run my heart-rate was in Zone 5; I almost never go into Zone 5 apart from during interval training. I don't know if it was the heat, the exertion or the whole occasion but that can't be good. I think I'll try to book in another for Oct/Nov and take away the time pressure. Might be easier said than done...
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Lot of talk from people saying they don't think the rematch will happen. Fury will probably retreat to the 'it was a robbery' line.
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I think we all expected a lot of leaning on (and his dad was calling for it) but he bizarrely did very little.
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Fury's corner defo let him down too. At the end of the 10th I'm pretty sure Andy Lee said 'you've won this.' Letting his dad in was a huge mistake.
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As there has been some controversy on the scorecards, I watched it again and it was actually by enlarge a very easy fight to call. 1-2nd Undoubtedly Usyk 3rd Harder to call. I still gave it to Usyk. 4-7th Fury won convincingly 8-10th No doubt Usyk dominated 11th More even but still quite comfortably Usyk 12th A lot gave it to Fury and it was close, again I thought Usyk. On my scorecard, it was 116-111. Even if you give the 3rd and 12th to Fury it was 114-113. Best man won. Most eye-catching shots were from Usyk and he pressured the whole fight.
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Fury is a clown and there was an aspect of comeuppance last night. One thing I don't agree with is people making out like it proves he's rubbish. He gave Usyk a real fight and at one point was bossing it. I actually think that he demonstrated with little doubt that he'd beat AJ.
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What is about British fighters embarrassing themselves after losing to Usyk. Fury just sounded thick making it about Ukraine. What a great fight. Usyk started well but then Fury looked like he was schooling him and I thought it was becoming likely he would stop him. It's a bit of blur but I don't know how Usyk turned the tide. He very nearly stopped him and boy was Fury gone. His walk back to the corner was that of a defeated man. Somehow he recovered, but I thought was still losing the rounds. Usyk came close to stopping both AJ and Fury but took his foot off the gas both times. Roll on the rematch...
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Absolutely hilarious last night at the weigh-in. Fury weighed in at an expected 262lbs which is quite light for him. Usyk steps up at 233.5lbs, 12lbs heavier than ever before. Pundits are going crazy, calling it madness with some even changing their predictions. After all, he'll lose some speed and will tire later etc. Turns out that Buffer heard them wrong and he was actually 223.1lbs so pretty much spot on . Tbf some pundits were questioning where he had put it cos he looked no different.
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So if you're a betting man, get your money on Fury because IMO the odds are ridiculously even. Here's why. To state the obvious, Fury is the naturally bigger man with an elusive style. The chances of Usyk knocking him out are incredibly slim, so therefore he'd need to win a decision. Because of the size difference and Fury's awkward style, he is unlikely to dominate as obviously as he did in say the first AJ fight. This opens the door to a dodgy decision. All the interested parties would favour a Fury win, after all there is the even more lucrative AJ fight on the cards. Therefore, it seems likely that Usyk would have to dominate Fury to get the decision and I can't see this happening.
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It was after 12:30 when AJ knocked out Ngannou and that was a 2 round fight. Easy after 1am before I got to bed. I only got that fight because the main even was due at 11pm. Of course it's not one of the Vegas fights but I'm at up at 6 and not doing a half-marathon off a few hours sleep
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Good to see the Furys being as classy as ever... The build up had been pretty low-key so far, but it's definitely came with a bang today. Frustratingly, my first ever half-marathon is at 9am on Sunday and I've trained too long to blow it by staying up late for this fight!
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Eurovision 2024
Maximus Decimus replied to gingerjon's topic in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
Yeh, I think most British people take that as a win even if it wasn't technically. -
I'm pretty sure there isn't a thread on this anywhere... Recently, I've been thrown into the world of Basketball having known very little about it. Obviously, I played at school, and know Michael Jordan etc but I've only ever seen it in a negative context in relation to say RL and the talk of how we don't want 'Basketball scores' where it is too easy to get points. However, I moved jobs and ended up at a Basketball hub of a town I didn't know existed and completely unrelated my 7 old daughter came home from school desperate to play. She's joined a team and become obsessed with it. As part of this, we went to see the local BBL team Cheshire Phoenix. Somewhat surprisingly, I did enjoy it and didn't find the points-scoring a huge issue. It was helped by the fact that both games were tight with big comebacks. I doubt I'd ever become a diehard but it's certainly worth a watch. The BBL is only small-time and is currently in the playoffs (8 out of 10 teams make it). I was at the Phoenix semi-final on Friday and they didn’t nearly fill a leisure centre hall. They've basically sacrificed domestic competitiveness to allow the London team to compete in mid-tier Europe. Time will tell how good a strategy this proves to be. I'm liking the kids Basketball, it helps that it's not outside and never called off! It is a bit like junior rugby though where one much better player can lead to very skewed scores. I've never seen the NBA and as it's on TNT I won't get to, although it is currently in the later stages of the playoffs.
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Eurovision 2024
Maximus Decimus replied to gingerjon's topic in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
There's an interesting article about what the UK needs to do to win Eurovision. It goes through this year's entry and analyses where it fell short. It hits the nail on the head with the last point - maybe it's just luck. Whilst some countries consistently do well, I think it's nearly impossible to predict what will win. It mentions for instance whether we played it too safe and uses Ireland this year, and Finland last year as examples. However, we've tried the whole out-there thing and failed miserably too, as did a couple of countries last night - Estonia and Finland come to mind. I just think it's right place at the right time. -
Eurovision 2024
Maximus Decimus replied to gingerjon's topic in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
Prior to the semi, I'd heard it was one to watch but was a little disappointed by it. That said, I think it would have been a very popular song. I'm sure the full details will emerge, and know for sure whether it was an overreaction or not. -
Eurovision 2024
Maximus Decimus replied to gingerjon's topic in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
We liked this in my house, but sadly it was just too old-fashioned for Eurovision I think. -
Lomachenko back to his best again last night, stopping Kambosos in the 11th. Things started quite well for the Aussie with him going to the body, but Loma soon figured him out. Superb interview by Kambosos afterwards, no excuses and very complimentary about his opponent. I do think boxing needs to get away from losses being the be all and end all.
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Eurovision 2024
Maximus Decimus replied to gingerjon's topic in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
Of course Israel's public vote was affected by political events. I suspect there was a mixture of pro-Israeli support but also people who didn't like how she'd been treated. My wife is pretty apolitical and hasn't a clue about Gaza, and she certainly felt sorry for her. IMO it's very likely the juries were affected in the opposite way. There was a great deal of hostility towards Israel's entry. There was a woman in the rehearsal who refused to read out Israel 12 points, Loreen said she wouldn't hand the trophy to Israel and numerous acts (Greece, Ireland, Netherlands) had been openly hostile. I can't remember a time when the 2nd favourite got so few of the juries votes. It was honestly my favourite, but that doesn't mean much when it comes to Eurovision and I don't think it would ever have won. Switzerland was a very popular winner in my house, my 7 year old daughter was absolutely made up. -
Eurovision 2024
Maximus Decimus replied to gingerjon's topic in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
Maybe it was just the best song? Personally, I think it demonstrated how the juries were very reluctant to give Israel any points for political reasons. Very pleased with the song that won though. Thought Croatia's was a bit too obvious and very pleased Ireland's didn't really challenge. As I said earlier, the UK's chance of winning bombed after the first showing on the semi-final. For all the talk of an amazing set-up by the commentators, it really turned people off. And when Israel got over 300 votes in the public jury, we can hardly use the 'Europe hates us' line as an excuse. -
Eurovision 2024
Maximus Decimus replied to gingerjon's topic in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
The staging is amazing nowadays. I'd recommend watching the semis, makes it more enjoyable IMO being familiar with the songs. -
Eurovision 2024
Maximus Decimus replied to gingerjon's topic in Any Other Business / Any Other Sports
I'm an old fuddy but it was too much IMO. And I'd say the same if it was heterosexual people simulating it.