We were in some discomfort when we typed this drivel last week. Drivel, or as one of our Christian friends described it ‘journalistic disgrace’ in a sternly worded missive a couple of weeks ago. However, that’s a topic for another time. Actually, now we think about it, this could be payback for that column (Christ, why is he coming back here?, MRT May 16). The Lord indeed works in mysterious ways.

Yes, for the umpteenth time in the past 12 months, this correspondent has broken down. It’s a pitiful sight really, what with us limping around and generally being more miserable than usual after straining something or other during a pre-parkrun run a couple of days earlier.

The thing is we only made our parkrun comeback a month or so ago after an injury-forced sabbatical. That particular problem seemed to take forever to come good. 

Now, this correspondent enjoys just a few pleasures in life. The occasional victory by the Sydney Roosters, an ice-cold Asahi on a hot day, or even a cool day, trips away to race meetings anywhere in the country and going in the Taree parkrun on a Saturday morning. We know there are parkruns held right around the world, but we’re not that adventurous. The Taree run will do us fine, a brisk jog up and down the Manning River foreshore from 8am with 100 or so fellow parkrunners. It’s good for the soul, although not neccesary for sole.

However, after a blazing start back in 2015 we have to report our attendances at parkrun have become frustratingly rare due to ongoing injuries. We made the 50 parkrun milestone midway through last year and had all gone to plan we would nearing the century mark by now. But the best laid plans and all of that for we’re still well short. Even if we completed every run from now to the end of the year (which we won’t), we still wouldn’t chalk up the three figures.

We’ve endured hamstring twinges, tendinitis, a badly bruised big toe (admittedly sustained when walking into a pub) and a few other complaints we can’t recall, none of which were life threatening, just annoying. However, we thought the worst was behind us when we managed to put four (very slow) parkruns on end in the last month. We were even there for the third anniversary run a couple of weekends past. Everything was good. We were set to again be a parkrun regular. Hurrah.

That was until last Thursday when we again went lame and were put back into the spelling yard. We have no idea when we’ll be right to resume although we don’t think it will be this Saturday. We might as well go to the pub on Friday night.

It’s all part of the rapid decent into dotage we suppose. If we’ve said it once, we've said it a thousand times. There’s nothing good about getting old.