A Golf Course Smooth And Green...
The sun was sitting on the sea, a huge ball of red and orange glowing light... I had seen it peeking over the trees on the balcony and now I stood a hundred yards from the sea marvelling at its roundness, it's energy, it beauty...
Yesterday morning I ran along the beach... I ran stumbling over rocky bits, sinking into the deep sand, relieved when I found a slightly harder path... Delighted when the tide started to recede and I could run on the firm wet sand...
After three miles I decided to turn for home... The beach stretched on and on as far as my eye could sea...
Not many people were out; some folk walking a dog, the fishermen preparing their rods... An occasional fellow 'keep fitter...'
One man was lying on his back in the sand doing sit ups... He sat up and saw me, and smiled 'Ola...'
Ola I replied...
It took me as long to run six miles as it would take me to run eight miles, or even nine on easier, flatter terrain...
'Count the hours not the miles' Nikos Kalifiris recommended, when running in the mountains... I have discovered that the same rule applies for a sandy beach running...
And so today, as I stood by the beach watching the sun climb up into the sky, the waves crashing on the shore, the sea birds swooping... I decided I could not face a beach run!
I turned back... Beside me a golf course, green and smooth, swept into the distance with the rock of San Pedro rising above it...
I started to jog along the little path which meanders through the greens... I followed it up and down and around about... It took me past the golf holes... Each had a sign with the par for the course written on them...
I was reminded of the times I lived with a professional golfer... The 'inner game', the need to clear the inner tension seems more obvious than in other sports...
And yet in conversation with the golfers I have known, we found the tensions similar... Maybe the shot 
by shot nature of golf makes the process more immediate, more obvious... But the aspect that seemed to take away the joy, and spoil the fun, was the harsh inner voice berating us for not doing as well as we/the harsh voice within, hoped...
The triumphant feeling of being in the zone, often short lived, to be replaced by a keen reminder of our frailty and the hazardous nature of entrusting our happiness to the results of our sport...
We discovered that the same resolution helped... To learn to play or run from a space of peace and self acceptance rather than looking for the next shot or the next race result to 'make us feel okay'.
Learning to know that we are not a better person of we win or a lesser person of we lose...
But that we are just us, doing our thing, learning as we go and clearing the inner tension, so that we become running, we become golf and let it take us where it will...
As I ran around the course, people started to appear... I passed by the first tee to see a group gathered ready to play their round...
And I ran onto San Pedro centre... Down to the sea... I was feeling good.
Flowing, free... Some fast male runners ran towards me.... I felt inspired, as I always do when I see excellence, speed, fluid motion... Focus, joy, dedication...
The nineteen year old me - who is still very much alive and well - committed to finding out how to run like them... She always does this!
I like it that she lives here still... We plan together...
I ran to the end on the promenade and back one mile along the beach to complete ten miles... And home to a delicious breakfast with Ange, Pru and Anadi.
