Fi and I have a tan!

On Sunday as we ran along the seafront having completed 19 of our 20 mile run, we were reflecting on our ‘near hypothermia run’ only 3 weeks ago!

We had a very relaxed and ‘sharing’ run. I had been late leaving, so decided not to bother with my garmin; this avoided the waiting bit to get the satellites to link in, and Fi having run up the road to meet me, was already wishing she’d brought water.

I had a camelback, we have two taps en route, and Fi had the watch…

However time keeping was clearly not meant to be the order of the day, as she kept forgetting to start her watch when we stopped for water, the loo, tying shoelaces that had come undone etc …!

As we were running along a path, right up on the top of the downs, I suddenly thought of Caballo Blanco – Micah True – from Chris McDougal’s book ‘Born to run’. I had a feeling of missing him, even though I never met him. Fi had interviewed him at the end of last year and already having a sense that I knew him - as many of us did I am sure, having read ‘Born to run’ -  I felt it even more so after hearing about Fi’s conversation with him

So, on Sunday morning my pang of missing him was quickly followed by a sense of freedom and a soaring of spirit as Fi and I ran side by side, doing what he loved to do and what we love to do. Running free, and without attachment to the watch or any outcome ‘He is trying to tell me something’ laughed Fi, as she realised that again she had forgotten to re start her watch! ‘We don’t need the watch, we can just love running because we love running’

It’s what we were born to do!

Do you sometimes run without timing yourself? How does this make you feel? Does it leave you without focus or does it remind you of what brought you to run in the first place? Let us know in the comments below.