Runners World

I’ve been meaning to write a new post for a while now but life and to be more specific running has taken over. Actually running has most definitely taken over life. It’s all I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks, it’s all I’ve had the energy to do. Don’t get me wrong training has been going well, but with all the long runs, speed session, races, double sessions and the inevitable stretching, strength training, foam rolling, and recovery there hasn’t been time left for anything else, even for the small every day things like shaving. Fifteen minutes extra in bed is much more important, besides more sleep helps my recovery and helps with my next run, Shaving doesn’t. So that explains why I am currently sporting a very scraggly ginger beard and also the lack of a blog post for the last couple of weeks.

This week has been the last full week of intense training. One more long run and I can try and get my head around the mysterious beast that is the taper. Hopefully it’ll mean a bit more time for writing and also maybe a shave. Anyway on with the blog.

The CDF Runners having collected their numbers before the Madrid half and full Marathons

Headphones on, hood up, I’m ready to go. Where shall we run today brain? That’s easy you run the same place you ran yesterday, the same place you run everyday.

It's dark, rainy, cold and damp but it doesn’t matter, I can shut myself off from the outside world and do the same route I always run. Down the end of the road turn right, up the slight hill and then keep turning right all the way back home again.
It's a boring, nothing to see here route through the greyer area of Cardiff. But I do it because it's my running route, I know exactly where I am, how long it will take me and I can never get lost, it cuts down on the unexpected, on the variables. It's a route I don't have to think about, I can just get it done. But it's so dull, if this route was a colour it would be magnolia, something to cover the walls before you can decide on the more daring colour you really want.

So hood up, headphones on, goodbye world I'm going for a run. For the next thirty minutes I may as well be I may as well be running on a treadmill. In fact that would be much easier, no rain or cold, just endless air conditioned miles that can be churned out in the safety of indoors. No variables, no weather, no darkness, no cars, no city, no getting lost, no outside world, no soul.

Surely running can be so much more than this.

Things started to change around my first race. Before the start we were told headphones would be banned as the roads would not be fully closed. How would I be able to run without closing myself off from the outside world? That little personal bubble I created, the songs and the beat they provided were surely the only thing getting me through the monotony of the run. The danger was without my headphones I would realise what I was doing and would fall to pieces, running was boring and running over an hour without music was unthinkable.

In fact the opposite happened, ditching the headphones opened up the world around me. From the sound of runners steps off the line to the cheers of spectators the race provided a host of new sensations. I chatted to fellow runners, waved at spectators, took in the new sights and a bit of the world I hadn't seen before, it was the best run most enjoyable run of my life.
Far from shutting the world out, I realised I could use running to explore more of the world around me. My usual route was abandoned and I started to become a tourist in my own city. I would plan routes around places I had never been to and take turns down streets just to see what was at the end of them. I would get a little lost just for the excuse to stay out a little longer and see a bit more. All the while the headphones stayed at home.
This was when the world started to turn into a big playground, running became the catalyst for seeing new sights and exploring new places. I started to pack my kit everyday for work just in case I had a job somewhere new and had a bit of time to explore.

Laugharne Castle on a run after a job in the town

I still didn't really run on holiday though. Holidays were an excuse to get away from it all to put life on hold for a few days, running included. I remember a colleague at work saying I could still train whilst I went away to Prague for a few days. Immediately my brain started to think of excuses, what if I got lost or injured in a place where I couldn't speak the language? I had no idea about the city, I didn't know where was best to run. And anyway with all we wanted to see there was no way I had the time to fit in a run. The excuses won, my shoes and the rest of the kit stayed at home. Running was forgotten for a few days.

All this changed we went to New Zealand at the beginning of the year. It had to change, four weeks without running just wasn't going to happen. The shoes were packed along with some basic kit and then a bit more kit for good measure. In fact normal clothes were left at home so running kit could take up precious space in the wheelie case.
That first morning in Christchurch I was horribly jet lagged but I was on the other side of the world, how could I not go and have an exploration run even if it was just to make Strava friends jealous of the profile. So I would make my way through town past the cathedral so horribly crippled in the earthquake and round the local park. The run followed a pattern, run stop look take pictures then run again. Normally I hated stopping out on a run, I would wait impatiently at traffic lights cursing as the cars and busses blocked my way, ruining my carefully thought out training plan. This type of run was different. It wasn’t a form of training, it was exploration. Time, distance and calories burnt could be forgotten about. Running was simply the transportation method I could use to take in the environment around me and see the sights. I realised I could use the run to make the most of my holiday.

That profile from my first jet lagged run in Christchurch

The rest of the holiday followed a similar pattern. We were in a campervan so would wake up with the sun. As I lay there I couldn't help but wonder what was outside, what places I could discover, what things I could see that I may never be able to see again. It became impossible to stay in bed no matter how tired I was. Each morning I would discover a completely new place and running was the best way to see it. Armed with my shoes and my phone I could see so much more than I would at my normal meandering tourist pace.

A photo from a run around the lake in Queenstown

So I’m now in Madrid, standing in the sun amid the chaos of the starting pen with forty thousand others waiting to sprint up the first hill. The whole point of this holiday has been to run.

Ok so I’m not taking the race that seriously, if I was then the sea food paella would definitely not have been my first choice for the pre race carb load the night before. No this is a race to enjoy, take in the atmosphere and explore a new city. It’s a training session in the sun after months of slogging it out through the rain, hail and wind of a British winter.

The CDF guys before the start in Madrid

These past few days away have been filled with running, after all when you go on holiday with your run club you expect to do it quite a lot, but it hasn’t been the collapse in a pool of sweat speed sessions we have been used to. It’s been a different type of running, tourist running. The have been the getting lost early morning runs, where you stumble across parks and landmarks. The group runs where we met up with a local run who guided us through the city and back to a bar where we were greeted with Bagels and Mimosas. There was also this race. 

Out on a run with the Lactic Acid Junkies a local club in Madrid. Thanks to Mikhael Puar for the picture and Robert Shultz for being our guide

So despite the seafood paella I had one of my most enjoyable races ever. Rather than blocking out the outside world I took it all in using the run to see the areas of the city I hadn’t got to yet. Once we had finished we could get back to the real business of sightseeing and eating way too much tapas.
This was what running can be. It’s given me a holiday with a group of people I never would have met if I kept the hood up and headphones on. I would still be on that same route pounding the same pavements day in, day out in my own little world.

I ran my original route the other day just to remind myself of how things used to be, to remember how small my running world once was. Running can be so much more than just running. It’s enabled me to make new friends and see places I would have never visited. Back home my shoes are now always in the car and on holiday they are now the first thing that gets packed. The only problem I have is choosing where to run next.

Here is a link to my just giving page, raising money for Action for M.E.

https://www.justgiving.com/M-e-myself-run
Please give what you can to a very worthy cause.