Modern Day Adam And Eve
I received an email from my friend Jim this morning...
Jim and I have run many many miles together... Six years ago we trained together the whole winter long in preparation to run different ultras on the same day in the April; me a 100k event in Copenhagen and he a fifty two mile event in the Scottish Highlands...
We ran for hours and hours and hours. One cold and frosty morning two hours into a five hour run, we hadn't said a word, we had met outside 'The Lamb' pub at 6am, run a wide circle around Eastbourne in the dark, then along the seafront until as the sun rose we were now climbing up onto The Downs.
'Our friendship has reached new levels', I commented to Jim 'to be able to run along and not speak at all is real relaxation in the company of someone...'
Jim laughed and said 'I haven't spoken for the last two years Ju' !!! :)
Before that we had trained with our friend Rob, to run the inaugural cross country race from London to Brighton in October 2008... Stu who won the race outright trained with us sometimes too, and on one occasion we all went on a reccy of the course. We had been sent a 'map booklet' in our pre race package so that we wouldn't get lost!!
And therein lies a whole other story, there is a point in the race where I say 'I have never felt so awful in the whole of my life..' Jim and I had just emerged from getting lost in the woods having run for 40 minutes in circles, this feels a lot of extra running in a 56 mile run! :)
And at that point I had never felt so awful in the whole of my life!! Now of course that sounds very dramatic - and it passed...
It particularly shifted when I said to Jim 'I'm not sure I can do this...' and Jim replied 'I'm not feeling so great myself Ju'...
His response snapped me out of my self absorbed misery! We are all fellow travellers on this jourey from 'London to Brighton' - from birth to death...
I found that race such a mirror of life, so many different emotions and challenges, experienced along the way. When running along it is vital to allow them to arise and then to let them go to be able to keep flowing and in a rhthym...
This way we remain in the present and the awful moments pass, like the wonderful ones; we can clear any attachment to them as we run ensuring our footsteps remain light and we leave no trace...
In his email, Jim said that he and his wife Carol had been saying that Anadi and I remind them of a modern day Adam and Eve; natural and explorative with no known destination or outcome...
We must be even more aware to watch for those snakes on the path...!
Today we have had a rest day from exercise!
We have stayed in a Orchid resort all day, just hanging out and working, chatting and eating nice food... The day has passed with sunny ease.
Last night we celebrated our 'dot dot dot' anniversary with a pink cocktail and a blue cocktail. As we sat sipping them, a group of four young men asked us to take a photograph of them; they were setting off for the full Moon party. They looked so vibrant and healthy as they left....
At around 10am this morning three of them appeared for breakfast from their apartment looking a bit quiet and depleted...
'I wonder where their friend is?' I said to Anadi...
Two hours later, I was going down the steps and I met him coming up them, looking just as vibrant and alive as last night, with colourful paint all over him... The trademark of attending a full moon party...
'I've just got back' he said to me with a big smile...
'You're looking very good on it' I said 'it must have been a good party!'