Thanet resident Matthew Munson is a single dad to son Bryan through adoption, and a writer, sharing his family and day to day life column
Since we last spoke, life at Casa de Munson has been in “full-on” mode. Bryan’s had work experience, which has been a whole new learning curve (for both of us – Bryan needed and deserved the freedom to manage that himself, and I’m incredibly proud of him).
Bryan’s main passion in life is dancing, and his dance school has been building up to a big show over in Canterbury in just a few days. Masque always put on a good show, and it’s a big highlight of Bryan’s year; I’m always pottering around as a chaperone, helping the kids out and looking after them – it’s a real privilege to see them grow up year after year, and I always watch the final show with my mum and dad to see Bryan actually on the stage from the auditorium. Proud dad alert.
Summer holidays are coming up, and by the time Bryan’s dance show is over, we’ll have five glorious weeks without the normal routines of work, school, and everything else we pack into term times. Bryan will miss his dancing tremendously, but he’ll get a chance to see some of his friends, as I hope will I, and we’ll spend some time together as a family.
We’ve signed up to a (walking) half-marathon in September, so we’ll be getting some practice walks in over the holidays as well. Some of the longer readers of this column will remember that I did a lot of marathons with a friend of mine over the years, and I thoroughly loved doing them. It’s a genuine pleasure to have brought Bryan along for the journey as well; we did one together last year, so Bryan’s an old hand now. We’ll stay in a hotel afterwards, as trying to go home by public transport at 1am or 2am is nigh on impossible – and why would we do that to ourselves?
The first marathon I ever did, with my two friends Di and Lorraine, was a brilliant experience, but we learnt so much from it. We drove up on the evening of the marathon and made it by the skin of our teeth; we arrived at the starting line (the awesome Battersea Power Station) just as the final few starters were setting off.
It must have taken us a good 10 hours to get round the route – we were slow walkers and stopped regularly to take pictures of the sights – and then we drove straight home to Kent afterwards. My muscles seized up on the journey, and I almost had to be pulled out of the car when I was dropped off at my house. The following year, we booked a hotel, got a few hours sleep after the marathon, and had breakfast before we travelled home. What a difference – and we did the same with every marathon after that.
I think it was the first marathon I ever did that I encountered some walkers about two or three miles in (out of 26.2), who were already sitting on benches and massaging their feet. Mind you, they were wearing flip-flops, which I’m not convinced was the best idea for a full marathon.
I also used to hear of “the wall”, where exhaustion hits at a really bad level; there must be some scientific explanation about this, but all I know is that I experienced it once – on my third or fourth marathon, at about the twenty-mile mark – and it was horrendous. Trying to think was like trying to move my thoughts through a thick fog, and my legs were slowly turning to jelly. Thankfully, the pal I was walking with kept me going and wouldn’t let me quit, although it was incredibly tempting, and I’ve never experienced it since.
The majority of people on these full and half marathons are friendly, lovely, and kind; there’s always the odd one or two who try (and usually fail) to ruin it for others. One lady really took a dislike to the two of us on a half-marathon my friend Di and I were doing; I don’t know what we were doing to make her so upset, aside from having a bit of a laugh with each other – but thankfully, we were able to ignore her and just get on with the walk on a nice Sunday morning.
The walk is in September, and I’m looking forward to some nice long walks with Bryan in the lead-up to it; it gives me the chance to spend some quality time with my son, and I’ll never say no to that.
Good man.