Running after Christmas has left me trying to remember what it felt like to run strong. Maybe it has always felt like this. Probably not.
I was sitting down this morning trying to get on with some work and noticed I was carrying out the essential first step towards framing up for work again: writing 50 words and then procrastinating by looking out of the window at best. One thing I’ve learned through work and play over the last year particularly is that if something is stuck, the only way out is to change it yourself. Wallowing in my own ineffectiveness wasn’t challenging that lesson so, having figured that looking out of the window might have meant something, the damp trainers were on and I was out the door.
I knew where I was heading but hadn’t really planned how far, aside from lifting my pack with a nosebag and a bottle of water which implies intent towards more than ’round the block.’ The other day I spotted a hill on the horizon so decided that would be my adventure today. The rest was simple – run that way and then run back again.
In truth, it wasn’t that simple as I felt like I was carrying a stow-away Christmas pudding in my belt. But it gave me time to notice how a journey can sway in body and mind. Yet, today was all about the destination; partly as I hadn’t chosen it yet and partly because when I did discover it it was an ancient burial site. Pretty cool what you stumble across when you run in one direction for a bit. I walked to one end and strode down the centre line to the stone entrance (felt like that was something that you might potentially do in 3500BC…) and then paused for thought, looking at the tress and then reading a sign which informed me what a Longbarrow actually was.
I made my way back home again thinking about how opportunist that little journey was. No great life changer but an interesting thing to happen and, once again, running made it so. To increase the brilliance, I used #mapmyrun when I was back to get an idea of the distance I’d covered. Looking closer, a stones throw from the barrow, I found a jellyfish in the nearby field. Who’d have thunk it? If I’d have continued to sludge about or even to concern over the Christmas dip in fitness, I would have missed a trick. Instead, a whimsical ‘run that way’ found a new experience and something that has made a day.
The whole jaunt has reminded me the importance of one simple mantra,
“Remember to look up.”
Just Disco 