Latest news with #Matterhorn
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
'I'm running an Ironman Triathlon at 60'
While many of us will be taking advantage of the bank holiday weekend for a bit of rest and relaxation, one man will be in training to push his body to its limits. Ian Russell, an airline pilot from Hereford, is preparing to run his first Ironman Triathlon - at the age of 60. Generally considered one of the toughest one-day races in the world, the event sees competitors swim 2.4 miles (3.9km), cycle 112 miles (180.2km) and then run a full marathon of 26.2 miles (42.1km). "They use to say life begins at 40. Now, 60 is the new 40," said Mr Russell. Although Mr Russell was a keen sportsman when he was younger - he lists climbing Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn among his achievements - work and family commitments had an impact on how active he could be. He later took up running, before joining his local triathlon club. Inspired by some of his fellow members who had taken part, last autumn Mr Russell signed up to the Ironman event in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, this September. "What I didn't realise was that, although it's local and easy to get to, it's actually one of the toughest ones going," he said. Since then, Mr Russell has invested in a coach and trains "most days" - but has suffered a couple of setbacks. "I've had a big operation on my hand," he explained, "which took a few weeks to recover from. And then I broke my foot out training with the triathlon club. "That took a good six to eight weeks to recover from. "So I'm not starting from the best base." He said that, while he was training hard, he was avoiding pushing himself too much. "You might end up injuring yourself, which I can't afford now," he said. "So the idea is just to nurse my old creaking bag of bones through to get to the start line." Mr Russell added he was worried about making a cut off, of two hours 20 minutes, to complete the swim. "I'm definitely not a swimmer," he said. "If you don't make the cut off, you don't even get as far as the bike ride. "All my main part of my training in my mind is revolving around getting through the swimming part. So at least I can get on a bike and… let Mother Nature and tailwinds take their course." Despite this, the athlete said he had no regrets. "I'm proving that age is no barrier to setting bold goals and achieving them," he added. Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. Thousands 'face the dragon' at Ironman Wales 'World Ironman Championship will be a fun day out' Man with hole in neck to compete in triathlon Ironman
BBC News
04-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
60-year-old Hereford man preparing for first Ironman Triathlon
While many of us will be taking advantage of the bank holiday weekend for a bit of rest and relaxation, one man will be in training to push his body to its Russell, an airline pilot from Hereford, is preparing to run his first Ironman Triathlon - at the age of considered one of the toughest one-day races in the world, the event sees competitors swim 2.4 miles (3.9km), cycle 112 miles (180.2km) and then run a full marathon of 26.2 miles (42.1km)."They use to say life begins at 40. Now, 60 is the new 40," said Mr Russell. Although Mr Russell was a keen sportsman when he was younger - he lists climbing Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn among his achievements - work and family commitments had an impact on how active he could later took up running, before joining his local triathlon by some of his fellow members who had taken part, last autumn Mr Russell signed up to the Ironman event in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, this September."What I didn't realise was that, although it's local and easy to get to, it's actually one of the toughest ones going," he said. Since then, Mr Russell has invested in a coach and trains "most days" - but has suffered a couple of setbacks."I've had a big operation on my hand," he explained, "which took a few weeks to recover from. And then I broke my foot out training with the triathlon club."That took a good six to eight weeks to recover from. "So I'm not starting from the best base."He said that, while he was training hard, he was avoiding pushing himself too much."You might end up injuring yourself, which I can't afford now," he said. "So the idea is just to nurse my old creaking bag of bones through to get to the start line." No regrets Mr Russell added he was worried about making a cut off, of two hours 20 minutes, to complete the swim."I'm definitely not a swimmer," he said. "If you don't make the cut off, you don't even get as far as the bike ride."All my main part of my training in my mind is revolving around getting through the swimming part. So at least I can get on a bike and… let Mother Nature and tailwinds take their course."Despite this, the athlete said he had no regrets."I'm proving that age is no barrier to setting bold goals and achieving them," he added. Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Time of India
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
10 fiction, nonfiction books inspired by Vietnam War
Vietnam War-Anniversary-Books (AP) Washington: Vietnam has been called the first "television" war. But it has also inspired generations of writers who have explored its origins, its horrors, its aftermath and the innate flaws and miscalculations that drove the world's most powerful country, the US, into a long, gruesome and hopeless conflict. Fiction "The Quiet American," Graham Greene (1955) British author Graham Greene's novel has long held the stature of tragic prophecy. Alden Pyle is a naive CIA agent whose dreams of forging a better path for Vietnam - a "Third Force" between communism and colonialism that existed only in books - leads to senseless destruction. "The Quiet American" was released when US military involvement in Vietnam was just beginning, yet anticipated the Americans' prolonged and deadly failure to comprehend the country they claimed to be saving. "The Things They Carried," Tim O'Brien (1990) The Vietnam War was the last extended conflict waged while the US still had a military draft, and the last to inspire a wide range of notable, first-hand fiction, none more celebrated or popular than O'Brien's 1990 collection of interconnected stories. O'Brien served in an infantry unit in 1969-70, and the million-selling "The Things They Carried" has tales ranging from a soldier who wears his girlfriend's stockings around his neck, even in battle, to the author trying to conjure the life story of a Vietnamese soldier he killed. O'Brien's book has become standard reading about the war and inspired an exhibit at the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago. "Matterhorn," Karl Marlantes (2009) Karl Marlantes, a Rhodes scholar and decorated Marine commander, fictionalised his experiences in his 600-plus page novel about a recent college graduate and his fellow members of Bravo Company as they seek to retake a base near the border with Laos. Like "The Quiet American," "Matterhorn" is, in part, the story of disillusionment, a young man's discovery that education and privilege are no shields against enemy fire. "No strategy was perfect," he realises. "All choices were bad in some way." "The Sympathizer," Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015) Viet Thanh Nguyen was just 4 when his family fled Vietnam in 1975, eventually settling in San Jose, California. "The Sympathizer," winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2016, is Nguyen's first book and high in the canon of Vietnamese American literature. The novel unfolds as the confessions of a onetime spy for North Vietnam who becomes a Hollywood consultant and later returns to Vietnam fighting on the opposite side. "I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces," the narrator tells us. "Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds." "The Mountains Sing," Nguyen Phan Que Mai (2020) Nguyen Phan Que Mai was born in North Vietnam in 1973, two years before the US departure, and was reared on stories of her native country's haunted and heroic past. Her novel alternates narration between a grandmother born in 1920 and a granddaughter born 40 years later. Together, they take readers through much of 20th century Vietnam, from French colonialism and Japanese occupation to the rise of Communism and the growing and brutal American military campaign to fight it. Que Mai dedicates the novel to various ancestors, including an uncle whose "youth the Vietnam War consumed." NONFICTION "The Best and the Brightest," David Halberstam (1972) As a young reporter in Vietnam, David Halberstam had been among the first journalists to report candidly on the military's failures and the government's deceptions. The title of his bestseller became a catchphrase and the book itself a document of how the supposedly finest minds of the post-World War II generation - the elite set of advisers in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations - could so badly miscalculate the planning and execution of a war and so misunderstand the country they were fighting against. "Fire in the Lake," Frances FitzGerald (1972) Frances FitzGerald's celebrated book was published the same year and stands with "The Best and the Brightest" as an early and prescient take on the war's legacy. Fitzgerald had reported from South Vietnam for the Village Voice and The New Yorker, and she drew upon firsthand observations and deep research in contending that the US was fatally ignorant of Vietnamese history and culture. "Dispatches," Michael Herr (1977) Michael Herr, who would eventually help write "Apocalypse Now," was a Vietnam correspondent for Esquire who brought an off-hand, charged-up rock 'n' roll sensibility to his highly praised and influential book. In one "dispatch," he tells of a soldier who "took his pills by the fistful," uppers in one pocket and downers in another. "He told me they cooled out things just right for him," Herr wrote, "that he could see that old jungle at night like he was looking at it through a starlight scope." "Bloods," Wallace Terry (1984) A landmark, "Bloods" was among the first books to centre the experiences of Black veterans. Former Time magazine correspondent Wallace Terry compiled the oral histories of 20 Black veterans of varying backgrounds and ranks. One interviewee, Richard J Ford III, was wounded three times and remembered being visited at the hospital by generals and other officers: "They respected you and pat you on the back. They said, You brave and you courageous. You America's finest. America's best.' Back in the states, the same officers that pat me on the back wouldn't even speak to me." "A Bright Shining Lie," Neil Sheehan (1988) Halberstam's sources as a reporter included Lt Col John Paul Vann, a US adviser to South Vietnam who became a determined critic of American military leadership and eventually died in battle in 1972. Vann's story is told in full in "A Bright Shining Lie," by Neil Sheehan, the New York Times reporter known for breaking the story of the Pentagon Papers and how they revealed the US government's long history of deceiving the public about the war. Winner of the Pulitzer in 1989, "A Bright Shining Lie" was adapted into an HBO movie starring Bill Paxton as Vann.
The Star
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Ten fiction and non-fiction books inspired by the Vietnam War
Vietnam has been called the first "television' war. But it has also inspired generations of writers who have explored its origins, its horrors, its aftermath and the innate flaws and miscalculations that drove the world's most powerful country, the United States, into a long, gruesome and hopeless conflict. FICTION 'The Quiet American,' Graham Greene (1955) British author Graham Greene's novel has long held the stature of tragic prophecy. Alden Pyle is a naive CIA agent whose dreams of forging a better path for Vietnam - a "Third Force' between communism and colonialism that existed only in books - leads to senseless destruction. The Quiet American was released when US military involvement in Vietnam was just beginning, yet anticipated the Americans' prolonged and deadly failure to comprehend the country they claimed to be saving. 'The Things They Carried,' Tim O'Brien (1990) The Vietnam War was the last extended conflict waged while the US still had a military draft, and the last to inspire a wide range of notable, first-hand fiction - none more celebrated or popular than O'Brien's 1990 collection of interconnected stories. O'Brien served in an infantry unit in 1969-70, and the million-selling The Things They Carried has tales ranging from a soldier who wears his girlfriend's stockings around his neck, even in battle, to the author trying to conjure the life story of a Vietnamese soldier he killed. O'Brien's book has become standard reading about the war and inspired an exhibit at the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago. 'Matterhorn,' Karl Marlantes (2009) Karl Marlantes, a Rhodes scholar and decorated Marine commander, fictionalised his experiences in his 600-plus page novel about a recent college graduate and his fellow members of Bravo Company as they seek to retake a base near the border with Laos. Like The Quiet American, Matterhorn is, in part, the story of disillusionment, a young man's discovery that education and privilege are no shields against enemy fire. "No strategy was perfect,' he realises. "All choices were bad in some way.' 'The Sympathizer,' Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015) Viet Thanh Nguyen was just four when his family fled Vietnam in 1975, eventually settling in San Jose, California. The Sympathizer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2016, is Nguyen's first book and high in the canon of Vietnamese American literature. The novel unfolds as the confessions of a onetime spy for North Vietnam who becomes a Hollywood consultant and later returns to Vietnam fighting on the opposite side. "I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces,' the narrator tells us. "Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds.' 'The Mountains Sing,' Nguyen Phan Que Mai (2020) Nguyen Phan Que Mai was born in North Vietnam in 1973, two years before the US departure, and was reared on stories of her native country's haunted and heroic past. Her novel alternates narration between a grandmother born in 1920 and a granddaughter born 40 years later. Together, they take readers through much of 20th century Vietnam, from French colonialism and Japanese occupation to the rise of Communism and the growing and brutal American military campaign to fight it. Que Mai dedicates the novel to various ancestors, including an uncle whose "youth the Vietnam War consumed.' NON-FICTION 'The Best and the Brightest,' David Halberstam (1972) As a young reporter in Vietnam, David Halberstam had been among the first journalists to report candidly on the military's failures and the government's deceptions. The title of his bestseller became a catchphrase and the book itself a document of how the supposedly finest minds of the post-World War II generation - the elite set of advisers in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations - could so badly miscalculate the planning and execution of a war and so misunderstand the country they were fighting against. 'Fire In The Lake,' Frances FitzGerald (1972) Frances FitzGerald's celebrated book was published the same year and stands with The Best And The Brightest as an early and prescient take on the war's legacy. Fitzgerald had reported from South Vietnam for the Village Voice and The New Yorker, and she drew upon firsthand observations and deep research in contending that the US was fatally ignorant of Vietnamese history and culture. 'Dispatches,' Michael Herr (1977) Michael Herr, who would eventually help write Apocalypse Now, was a Vietnam correspondent for Esquire who brought an off-hand, charged-up rock 'n' roll sensibility to his highly praised and influential book. In one "dispatch,' he tells of a soldier who "took his pills by the fistful,' uppers in one pocket and downers in another. "He told me they cooled out things just right for him,' Herr wrote, "that he could see that old jungle at night like he was looking at it through a starlight scope.' 'Bloods,' Wallace Terry (1984) A landmark, Bloods was among the first books to centre the experiences of Black veterans. Former Time magazine correspondent Wallace Terry compiled the oral histories of 20 Black veterans of varying backgrounds and ranks. One interviewee, Richard J. Ford III, was wounded three times and remembered being visited at the hospital by generals and other officers: "They respected you and pat you on the back. They said, 'You brave and you courageous. You America's finest. America's best.' Back in the states, the same officers that pat me on the back wouldn't even speak to me.' 'A Bright Shining Lie,' Neil Sheehan (1988) Halberstam's sources as a reporter included Lt Col. John Paul Vann, a US adviser to South Vietnam who became a determined critic of American military leadership and eventually died in battle in 1972. Vann's story is told in full in A Bright Shining Lie, by Neil Sheehan, the New York Times reporter known for breaking the story of the Pentagon Papers and how they revealed the US government's long history of deceiving the public about the war. Winner of the Pulitzer in 1989, A Bright Shining Lie was adapted into an HBO movie starring Bill Paxton as Vann. – AP
The Independent
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
10 fiction and nonfiction books inspired by the Vietnam War
Vietnam has been called the first 'television' war. But it has also inspired generations of writers who have explored its origins, its horrors, its aftermath and the innate flaws and miscalculations that drove the world's most powerful country, the U.S., into a long, gruesome and hopeless conflict. FICTION 'The Quiet American,' Graham Greene (1955) British author Graham Greene's novel has long held the stature of tragic prophecy. Alden Pyle is a naive CIA agent whose dreams of forging a better path for Vietnam — a 'Third Force' between communism and colonialism that existed only in books — leads to senseless destruction. 'The Quiet American' was released when U.S. military involvement in Vietnam was just beginning, yet anticipated the Americans ' prolonged and deadly failure to comprehend the country they claimed to be saving. 'The Things They Carried,' Tim O'Brien (1990) The Vietnam War was the last extended conflict waged while the U.S. still had a military draft, and the last to inspire a wide range of notable, first-hand fiction — none more celebrated or popular than O'Brien's 1990 collection of interconnected stories. O'Brien served in an infantry unit in 1969-70, and the million-selling 'The Things They Carried' has tales ranging from a soldier who wears his girlfriend's stockings around his neck, even in battle, to the author trying to conjure the life story of a Vietnamese soldier he killed. O'Brien's book has become standard reading about the war and inspired an exhibit at the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago. 'Matterhorn,' Karl Marlantes (2009) Karl Marlantes, a Rhodes scholar and decorated Marine commander, fictionalized his experiences in his 600-plus page novel about a recent college graduate and his fellow members of Bravo Company as they seek to retake a base near the border with Laos. Like 'The Quiet American,' 'Matterhorn' is, in part, the story of disillusionment, a young man's discovery that education and privilege are no shields against enemy fire. 'No strategy was perfect,' he realizes. 'All choices were bad in some way.' 'The Sympathizer,' Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015) Viet Thanh Nguyen was just 4 when his family fled Vietnam in 1975, eventually settling in San Jose, California. 'The Sympathizer,' winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2016, is Nguyen's first book and high in the canon of Vietnamese American literature. The novel unfolds as the confessions of a onetime spy for North Vietnam who becomes a Hollywood consultant and later returns to Vietnam fighting on the opposite side. 'I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces,' the narrator tells us. 'Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds.' 'The Mountains Sing,' Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai (2020) Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai was born in North Vietnam in 1973, two years before the U.S. departure, and was reared on stories of her native country's haunted and heroic past. Her novel alternates narration between a grandmother born in 1920 and a granddaughter born 40 years later. Together, they take readers through much of 20th century Vietnam, from French colonialism and Japanese occupation to the rise of Communism and the growing and brutal American military campaign to fight it. Quế Mai dedicates the novel to various ancestors, including an uncle whose 'youth the Vietnam War consumed.' NONFICTION 'The Best and the Brightest,' David Halberstam (1972) As a young reporter in Vietnam, David Halberstam had been among the first journalists to report candidly on the military's failures and the government's deceptions. The title of his bestseller became a catchphrase and the book itself a document of how the supposedly finest minds of the post-World War II generation — the elite set of advisers in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations — could so badly miscalculate the planning and execution of a war and so misunderstand the country they were fighting against. 'Fire in the Lake,' Frances FitzGerald (1972) Frances FitzGerald's celebrated book was published the same year and stands with 'The Best and the Brightest' as an early and prescient take on the war's legacy. Fitzgerald had reported from South Vietnam for the Village Voice and The New Yorker, and she drew upon firsthand observations and deep research in contending that the U.S. was fatally ignorant of Vietnamese history and culture. 'Dispatches,' Michael Herr (1977) Michael Herr, who would eventually help write 'Apocalypse Now,' was a Vietnam correspondent for Esquire who brought an off-hand, charged-up rock 'n' roll sensibility to his highly praised and influential book. In one 'dispatch,' he tells of a soldier who 'took his pills by the fistful,' uppers in one pocket and downers in another. 'He told me they cooled out things just right for him,' Herr wrote, 'that he could see that old jungle at night like he was looking at it through a starlight scope.' 'Bloods,' Wallace Terry (1984) A landmark, 'Bloods' was among the first books to center the experiences of Black veterans. Former Time magazine correspondent Wallace Terry compiled the oral histories of 20 Black veterans of varying backgrounds and ranks. One interviewee, Richard J. Ford III, was wounded three times and remembered being visited at the hospital by generals and other officers: 'They respected you and pat you on the back. They said, 'You brave and you courageous. You America's finest. America's best.' Back in the states, the same officers that pat me on the back wouldn't even speak to me.' 'A Bright Shining Lie,' Neil Sheehan (1988) Halberstam's sources as a reporter included Lt. Col. John Paul Vann, a U.S. adviser to South Vietnam who became a determined critic of American military leadership and eventually died in battle in 1972. Vann's story is told in full in 'A Bright Shining Lie,' by Neil Sheehan, the New York Times reporter known for breaking the story of the Pentagon Papers and how they revealed the U.S. government's long history of deceiving the public about the war. Winner of the Pulitzer in 1989, 'A Bright Shining Lie' was adapted into an HBO movie starring Bill Paxton as Vann. ___ For more coverage of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War's end, visit
