A Runner?

If you’ve been following what I’ve been up to over the past few months, you’ll notice that amongst the moments of speaking, travelling and film there’s been one pretty solid constant which has been my running.

All of this running is about to culminate in what has been my goal this entire time which has been to complete the Elephant Trail 50km race, an event that was recommended to me by friend of the journal, Zac O’Neil. Who, when I asked for potential entry level trail events, he immediately threw this option back at me. I swiftly entered the race only to check my messages afterwards to see that he warned me it would be “hilly”… I then found out what some people call “hilly”, others refer to as 2400 odd metres of elevation which is something that I felt like I hadn’t signed up for, despite the fact that I literally signed up for it only moments before.

The months since then have resulted in the difficult part of the whole process which is the training. The hours on the trail, the time on feet, the small injuries, the cold mornings and everything else that makes this it’s own worthy journey. Most people hate the training. And the mindset I had coming into this was slightly moulded by last time I trained for a marathon which was that I though it was all very time consuming and boring. Only this time has been a little different.

The difference hasn’t been in the enjoyment of the practice or the progress you feel as an improving runner. The difference I found has been in the type of running altogether. Being on tracks and trails rather than streets, pathways and roads seemed to open my eyes much more to the prospect of using this training as a way to explore and enjoy nature as much as it was to get kilometres under my belt. This exploration took me to new places close to home, as well as plenty of places I never would have seen as I was travelling throughout Europe and this is something that I have absolutely loved about the whole process.

With all of this enjoyment, and the subsequent improvements that come from doing the training, it began to take up quite a bit of my attention. So the ultimate question I’ve been asking myself is am I now a runner? The answer for now is probably “Yes” but who knows how that will change after I cross the finish line of the 50km. I’ve always found myself asking “What next?” when I finish a challenge and with the progress I’ve made during this training period of learning about nutrition and fuelling my body I feel like I now have many more options in front of me. Whether the next thing is running or something new remains to be seen but one thing I will absolutely take from the past few months is the importance in connecting to nature as something that simply makes me feel great.

So that’s it. This time next week I’ll be able to reflect on this running journey and if you happen to be reading this now, go find yourself some trail and start exploring. I can’t wait to get back to that after I recover from Zac’s hills.