Run Philosophique
Sunday
What a wonderful, windy wonderland!
At 7.45 am this morning Anadi and I left Ravilious, and ran up to the cafe at the foot of the steep green hill, which heralds the start of Beachy Head marathon...
We were meeting Tim and Poppy...
'There's Poppy' I said - in front of us I could see a zigzagging bundle of joy and energy...
She is the fittest and liveliest spaniel you will ever meet...
It was wonderful to see Tim... We headed off round the hollow and as we rounded a corner, we met Danny Garbett, who was with two friends, Katie and Colin, running the other way. Danny is a very big character in Eastbourne, a great runner himself, who also inspires and supports many other runners...
We stopped and talked, and laughed a lot, and then carried on around the hollow, slip sliding our way, the wind whistling and playing around us, and with us...
'Its just like Bubion', Tim said, as we headed up the hill to the top of the downs, referring to the many times the three of us had run together there last summer.
'Yes' Anadi said, 'except for the mud and the wind, there aren't any mountains and it isn't hot... In fact it's nothing like Bubion!'
Tim laughingly agreed, but I said that I knew what Tim meant!
At the top of the hill, there is a peace memorial, where Anadi and I used to stop and read the poem out loud... The three of us stood in a little group, with Poppy wagging and weaving around our legs and we read it out together...
'Lead me from death to life,
from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope,
from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace.
Let peace fill my heart,
Peace...'
And on we ran... On we always run, into the next step and the next; the paradox of the first line of the poem says everything we need...
We are on a journey physically from birth to death... And as we journey if we can learn to live then we are led away from death to life...
We returned to the cafe after circling the side of the downs, the wind so strong we couldn't hear ourselves speak... Blown back up through the valley and down the steep hill to home...
On Friday I had finished down this same hill with my friend Rob... It is 15 years since we first started to run together. On one of our very first runs, he told me the story of how he was on a mountain bike when he first came to live in Eastbourne. He recalled how he was careering down this same hill... He had not been there before and suddenly ahead of him was this almost sheer drop with the road below...!
The story made me shiver at the very thought.
Somehow Rob had stopped at the bottom without injury or disaster...!
When Anadi and I arrived at Ravilious we were an hour late for breakfast, but Frank cooked Anadi a 'full English' and he made me some scrambled eggs and tomato despite having turned the grill and everything off in the kitchen...
If was a lovely, much appreciated treat; there is nothing like breakfast after a run anyway, and after a run in 'the elements' it was extra specially delicious and wonderful...
Monday...
The promise of a visit by storm Imogen meant that last night I received a text from Matt... Matt Shore of 'The Shore method' of training, swho ets me my strength and conditioning work, while I am travelling... We had planned a run for this morning...
His text read thus... 'There is a forecast of very wet, are you up for running in storm Imogen?' I assured him I was up for it, and waking up at 6am to a washed clean, bright, if rather blustery day was a very pleasant morning greeting... Storm Imogen had done most of her exercise in the night, and left the way clear for us to enjoy our exercise now!
Matt and I ran along the sea front and aware of quite significant 'wind assistance' we made our way back slightly inland so that we could hear ourselves speak!
The last few days have been rich with friendship and treasured time spent in 'run Philosophique'....
