How Easy Was That...?
We were up early and out to visit the mountain once more… We walked the oh so steep mile out of the village and up the grassy slope with the whispering trees…
Anadi didn’t feel like running, so I left him on the hill and ran off along the woodland trail, damp from rain, the smell of the earth, and the green leaves on the trees reminding me of the beginnings of a watery English summer day.
I like the stability of my new shoes, and running in them felt good…
I am aware of the fear that restricts me in trail races is a mixture of wearing shoes that I have not trusted will grip the ground, a left leg that I have been aware might not be strong enough… A leg I am getting to trust more and more, as it trusts that I will continue to do my exercises that strengthen it…!
And in there some fear of falling, that must be linked with a deeper fear somewhere inside me…
As Nikos Kalofyris, the Greek legend of mountain running and I agreed during our recent conversation… ‘Everything is linked’…
The reason for my ‘up until now unsuitable shoes for trail running’, is that the only shoe that didn’t trigger pain on the bottom of my forefoot (Morton’s neuroma) has been very flexible Nike Frees, but I am hopeful, that this is now a ‘pain of the past’… and that I can branch out…
And so off I went, up the winding hill and then steeper up some more, until the path flattened out and I could run with more ease... After awhile I turned for home again and as I was running down the path, I heard a whistle and there like a leprechaun, was Anadi on a big rock high up above the path….
We ran the last mile together down to our delicious breakfast…
Yolanda, the owner of hotel, which has been our home for the past five days, has looked after us so well… Each morning we have run in the mountain looking forward to returning home to our feast of omlette and fresh tomatoes, local Metsovo cheeses, butter and ham; fresh toast with homemade jam, Greek yoghurt and honey… All served up with orange juice, and a big pot of coffee…
We have dined alone each morning, other than the day we met Angelos, the fellow runner, who had lived for five years in my old town Eastbourne… Since becoming nomads, we always take time over breakfast… it is a new ritual for me and one I really enjoy.
Our days are paradoxically very full; we mainly work, and of course I run - but our work is what we love to do and running is what I love to do too, and so we have created a lifestyle which means that we could be easily mistaken for two people on a very long holiday… And wherever we go the people we encounter wish us a ‘happy vacation’…
Life as a holiday, a holiday on planet earth… a very long holiday and like every vacation is has the possibility of being so many things… Like our life, we start off on holidays full of eager anticipation and this can crumble into disappointment and disaster as it doesn’t turn out to be the fun we planned or hoped for...
If every day were a holiday how would we spend it… If life were a holiday would we need a rest from it?
The orientation in me of a ‘total lifestyle’ has meant that there has been nothing for it bit to make my life up, as it has been a complete impossibility for me to stay in anything that has not been resonant or right for me…
This caused my Dad much upset and worry, ‘What will Julia do next…’ And ‘giving things up’ was considered a weakness, not following through, stopping what you started…. But I couldn’t continue when it didn’t work for me…
So university bit the dust, then nurse training… and the ‘pattern’ continued in any area that felt wrong…
But I remember my friend Wendy saying words that helped me so much ‘Ju, people say you change a lot… But I see you as someone who follows through… You have always followed your running, you have always worked helping people – in many different ways… You have long term friendships that you never leave… I don’t see you as someone changeable, I see you as someone who is constant and true…’
And I gradually learnt not to start things I deep down knew I didn’t want to do…
And instead only did the things I really did want to… And discovered that however hard that road might be at times, if I wanted to do it, it was easy to keep travelling ‘the road less travelled’ or the ‘steep inclines’ or the ‘foggy days’ of confusion… because I was on the path of my inner voice and of my heart…
How easy was that…?
