Willie Rennie certainly is a pretty good role model for a healthy lifestyle.
This is the sight that greeted me when I arrived at Scottish Lib Dem HQ for a meeting yesterday morning.
That @willie_rennie is really putting us all to shame in @scotlibdems HQ with this cycling lark. Thankfully no Lycra! pic.twitter.com/mnUVyT6ryP
— Adam Stachura (@adamstachura) August 7, 2015
Willie had cycled from Fife for the meeting. As if he hadn’t had enough exercise when he’d run up a couple of the mountains on the Drumochter Pass in Perthshire on the way home from the Black Isle Show on Thursday night. That came only two days after he’d run up another couple of hills in Aberdeenshire on the way back from the Turiff Show.
He is pretty chuffed with himself at the moment (and rightly so) for finishing a race a few weeks ago 10 seconds faster than he’d run it 30 years ago.
This all makes me think that it might be a bit of fun to have Willie and Tim Farron race against each other. Tim is very fit as well and last week competed in a fell race in his Lake District constituency. I did suggest to Willie that he and Tim race up a hill or two in Bournemouth, but he didn’t seem to think that they were steep enough for his taste. If I had to guess which of them I thought would win, I’d probably say Willie if it’s uphill as he is in seriously good form at the moment, and Tim if it’s on the flat because I think he has more straight-line speed.
We have some fantastic sportspoeple in the party. Jo Swinson and former Yorkshire and the Humber MEP Rebecca Taylor, who ran the Paris Marathon earlier this year. And amongst the staff, Austin Rathe, Members and Supporters Manager ran the London Marathon. I’m sure we could have a bit of friendly competition amongst this lot and highlight our good access to sports policies if we put our mind to it. The LDV Laff-A-Lympics, anyone?
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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6 Comments
Simon Hughes has been pictured wearing Lycra at conference.
How can you ignore Brian Paddick, Dominic Addington and myself who with crossbench peer Anthony St John beat the Commons by four lengths in last month’s Parliamentary Boat Race between Vauxhall Bridge and Parliament?
Martin Thomas
I didn’t even know that! Well done, Martin!
And also: Ming Campbell, former Olympic sprinter; Donald Macgregor, former Olympic marathon runner; Tim Brett, successful Munrovian (that’s my word for having climbed all the Munros).
And don’t forget Chris Davies, who is another excellent hill runner and won a race last year, (I think?) but I can’t remember the exact title of it.
Willie has, of course, an enviably long record of fitness activity, going back at least as long as his time as North Cornwall Organiser / Agent.