On Sunday morning I ran up to the Pilot to meet Fi and we set off on our Sunday morning journey over the downs, it was still snowy and icy on the top so we took to the road with the downs beside us– the landscape looked so different from a new position.
Worth remembering, if we want things to change ‘get off the downs and onto the road’ and we’ll notice that things aren’t as they seemed before…
The road to Birling Gap felt like we were travelling along the Yellow Brick Road in a magical land leading us to somewhere we had never been, over the rainbow way up high. The miles passed with ease and there was a timeless quality to the run, a stillness and ease within the steps as we ran.
A wish for myself is that I can always run 20 miles with ease, that would be nice.
My first 20 mile run was carried out when I was 15 years old. I seem to remember conventional wisdom said that 15 year olds shouldn’t be running that far. My long runs then were on the countryside all over Frensham ponds and The Flashes and around Hankley Common so it was easy on the body.
Conventional wisdom used to say we had to ‘stop’ as we aged or at least slow down, but now I know I can run for ever…
My body does seem to have dictated slower race times, which is okay, although always slightly bemusing the teenager within who feels ‘the same’. The teenager who feels that anything is possible and probable and that there are no limits
The soon to be 53 year old feels the same way – that anything is possible and probable and that there really are no limits.
There is a freedom too in that I am more at ease with the ebbs and the flows. Within the feeling of no limits and shining spires of performance, I am released from attachment to my plans and an outcome
The gift of the summer of the sore knee saw to it that I let go even more than before. I let go of planning really, and just surrendered to what was …
Within this energy of surrender and ‘let go’, my return to running has seemed to flow. I have now built up to some miles and fitness that is in truth swifter than I would have anticipated had I planned or hoped.
I have Fi to thank for this as she is in training for London Marathon and as I emerged out of the gym and onto the running path again she had just begun her build up, so I have ‘joined in’ – hence 20 mile runs on as Sunday without any thoughts of running a marathon for a while…
The other gift from the side-lined summer – is in the deeper healing to my ‘left side’ – where all the injuries have occurred.
I was kicked in the ribs by a horse when I was 8 and I believe this ‘threw me out’ but it didn’t reveal itself until my left side injuries begun when I was 26.
For the past 10 years I have worn insoles to support my arches as my left foot is weaker and falls in. The knee injury brought my attention back to the imbalances and greater weakness on this side and so for the past few months I have paid more attention to balancing and strengthening and hey presto I am now running in minimalist running shoes, which I like best, but the miracle is I am wearing them without any supportive insoles and my body is feeling flowing and aligned again.
This really does feel to be a miracle.
I have tried to wean off insoles from time to time, but my foot wasn’t strong enough, however now it is getting stronger all the time and is showing me that it is worth keeping on working to balance and align as best we can.
I can only conclude that living is a lifetime’s work! I am continually discovering and learning to trust that being myself is all that is required. This takes work and it takes play. Freeing ourselves from the rigid constraints of our conditioning and daring to dive deeper than being attached to the I of the personality and get to the I that is the truth of who we really are, which is the eternal self and is connected to the source of the universe.
If we stop and listen and trust all is revealed. I have been shown this over and over. Running has been my mirror and reveals to me always how to be still within the movement.
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