Running: The Autobiography (27 page)

Running … my religion, my belief system, my way of keeping calm. (Mel Fordham)

Me and my personal trainer Tracey Alexandrou … she’s a brilliant athlete and has been a constant in my life. Tracey gives it me straight. If I’m not fit, she won’t pretend otherwise.

At the farm … I loved working there during my year away from snooker, but cleaning out the pigsties didn’t half put me off my ham. (Tom Jenkins)

On my way to victory in the Lactic Rush assault course … it was bloody murder, but I was determined, especially after I heard one fella shout out to his mate, ‘You can’t let a snooker player beat you.’ (Mel Fordham)

Running in Birmingham with the great Ethiopian Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m gold medallist Tirunesh Dibaba. She couldn’t believe the miles I was putting in. (Alan Walter)

Me, Chris Davies, his family and friends. They promised me I’d do my PB in France and I did.

Me and Chris Davies and his wife Amanda in France. All the family are incredible runners, and I loved the fact that I became part of their extended family. Happy days.

At Woodford Green athletics club with Alan Rugg, Barry Elwell, Bernadine Pritchett and Terry McCarthy … none of them cared that I played snooker, and most of them didn’t even know. They just accepted me as a runner. (Tom Jenkins)

Me, Chris Davies’s dad Terry and his mum Lyn in France … we were staying in a hotel for £18 a night, running every day, eating pizzas, talking about running, and I thought I’d cracked life.

Love this pic … me, Lil and little Ronnie. Everything that makes life worthwhile. I took my year off the game to make sure I could get quality time with the kids.

Me, Damien and Irish Chris … vital men in my corner. Lovely fellas as well.

I’ll tell Irish Chris how shit I think I really am at snooker and he just looks at me as if I’m mad. That’s friendship! But here we are with a nice little world trophy.

In the first half of my career, it was drink and drugs that kept me on the straight and narrow – crazy though that sounds. This time round, it’s been the running that’s kept my head straight. Or at least as straight as mine will ever be. (Tom Jenkins)

Also by Ronnie O’Sullivan

Ronnie

Copyright
An Orion ebook

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson This ebook first published in 2013 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson © Ronnie O’Sullivan 2103

The right of Ronnie O’Sullivan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent publisher.

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ISBN: 978 1409 11224 2

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