With no major running events going on this blog's been a little quiet of late, and since Matt seems too busy to contribute I thought I'd take up the slack with a little 'philosphical' musing.
Whenever I tell somebody about the Hadrian's wall challenge, their first reaction is usually along the lines of "You guys must be [insert approprite expletive] mental!". What they don't seem to realise is that running is actually great fun. Granted, when you first start there is the pain issue, but as long as you don't hideously over-stretch your capabilites (too often) you soon find that you can happily keep going for as long as you want. There's something uplifting about the freedom of being able to just throw on a pair of shoes and head off for a couple of hours. You can just explore wherever you want. I've lived in Durham for nearly 7 years now, but since I've started running this year I've discovered at least fifty incredible places I'd never seen before, most of which can't be reached by road.
You also experience the natural world and the changing seasons in a way that's just not possible when you're haring along in a car. As an example, the other day I was running alongside the river Wear in the evening and a mist began to form on the shadowed valley wall. Gradually, a low ground mist began forming in a depression on the other side of the valley. Then something I've never seen before happened. Rather than expanding across the ground and joining up, the mist on the valley side threw out tendrils of vapour (fast enough that I could see them moving, even though the air was perfectly still) which snaked down to the mist on the other side of the valley, forming an arch of fog, which I then ran through. It wasn't a case of light and shadow forming the impression of structure on a uniform fog because when I ran under it it actually looked like an arch from all angles. I doubt if something like that could have formed near a city or road, because the air would not be still enough and the shape would be blown away. I guess I could have walked out there instead of running, but running lets me get further and see more things in the small amount of spare time that I have.
If you haven't stopped reading by now, you're probably thinking "Okay, recreational running is one think but 85 miles in three days?!". Well, for a start, we're doing it for charity (not just some macho impulse) and also for the challenge. As Kennedy said "We choose to...do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win". Now, while I'm not comparing our three day run to putting a man on the moon, the motivations are similar. Part of what makes us human is the need to become more than we are, to set and achieve new goals, and if they were easy then it wouldn't be worthwhile. So next time somebody tells you they're doing something difficult, or punishing, or challenging, maybe you should ask "Why aren't I?".
Right. Enough of the pretentious stuff, back to reality. Gareth told me the other day that he'd found a marathon training plan that required 40 miles of running per week (hopefully he'll blog it soon). I reckon I'm doing at least that, but the other guys seem to be slacking a little and I don't want to be carrying their stiffening corpses over the Pennines when they can't hack it. As a training incentive, I'm starting a totaliser, which will hopefully shame my compatriots into meeting the demands of the training regime. It should be pointed out that we are also three quarters of a rowing crew and have to fit that in as well. However for the purposes of this blog, only running miles will be counted - gym time is not admissible! Distances should be calculated using the
Google Maps Pedometer and our respective totals will be posted every Thursday, starting from next Thursday. Get running guys.
