I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since I last posted! Finishing a big important deadline for work, having my parents come to stay, heading off for a weekend in York with old friends...and still I managed to keep running. As you can see from the picture, I've had company on my runs of late - my friends (and their dogs), my dad (69 this year and kicking my butt!), and finally a solo, 20 minute run this morning, and a sense of huge achievement!
What is it about running? Is it the way it's just you and your body? Or the way the goal is so clear and precise? For some reason it is the most satisfying thing I think I've ever done. My pride seems disproportionate, and yet I don't think it is.
Running is about challenging yourself, and for some of us it's a means to an end: weight loss, physical or mental health, etc. But though we might start doing it for those reasons, I feel like there are other, more compelling reasons that establish themselves every time we get up and go out.
Running gives you a space and time when you are utterly in the moment. You can't be anywhere else - you have to be right here and right now. Your mind inhabits your body, and your body achieves things you thought it couldn't. Your body is your world and through it you get to be in the world... It's pretty cosmic.
I'm fairly sure I'm surfing the legendary Runner's High right now, so if you'll excuse me I'm going to go stare at some trees and murmur "Far out" a bit.