Adelaide Marathon Campaign - Week 1 of 16

[Sweder]

The 'why' question is one I've faced myself lately.
I know why I started. Once I'd completed a marathon I moved on to wanting to do so on my own terms; in other words without feeling that I might keel over and die at any moment. Recently I came to realise it's not the races for me but the training runs I'd miss if I stopped. Sure, races provide goals but invariably I enjoy them less than the sociable, pressure-free environs of a Sunday with the JSJers or a lonesome, contemplative lope over my beautiful hills. I guess we're moving back to Sheehan and his singular experiment theory; the man has a point. Running it seems is my religion; my faith. It stimulates my body and my mind, makes me challenge myself, encourages me to respect and admire others.

Motiviation for me takes several forms. Fear - fear of terminal larditude, fear of frailty, of failing health - is a factor. But in truth I derive huge pleasure from feeling warm blood pump through my arteries, from the festival of endorphins coursing through me after a lung-bursting effort, and from the one-ness with nature than running offroad delivers. And then there's the creative side-effects; if I wasn't running I simply wouldn't write. At all. The one fuels the other and both enhance my sense of self. So much in life is by necessity shared with and influenced by others; this running/ writing symbiosis is all for me.

As you say, there's always the exploits of others. I take inspiration from the stories told here; from your own epic fight against the ravages of time and the frailty of the human condition. From BB and his impossibly difficult challenges described with such modesty, as if everyone does this sort of thing all the time in the running Shangri-La of Ponferrada; from Antonio and his boundless enthusiasm for the fiesta that is running in Andalucia. And from the mighty El Gordo, a man who simply will not allow life's guilty pleasures to nail him to that sofa, who rises time and again from the canvas to invite the Beast to do its worst. Our own Thomas Covenant, baring his tortured soul before howling into the teeth of the maelstrom and diving back into the fray.

There are plenty of things in life that motivate, excite, entertain and enthrall us.
This magical realm has added a new dimension and introduced amazing characters to my life. To stop running, to give up this running life, would be to risk losing that. Not something I'm prepared to contemplate just yet.