The marathon

A few people have asked me if I get bored during long training runs. Nope. What do you think about then? All kinds of things. Today as I ran I had this revelation:

There are two basic skill to master in long distance running:

1. starting
2. not stopping

To try is to risk failure

In between a fairly full schedule of meetings in Brisbane, I've found time to read. Borrowed books on development and community work are the order of the day. Here's one quote I thought you might enjoy on risk (from Dave Andrew's Compassionate Community Work) :

Only one who risks is free!

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out is to risk involvement.
To disclose feelings is to risk disclosing your true self.
To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk their love.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The one who risks nothing does nothing and has nothing
- and finally is nothing.
He (or she) may avoid sufferings and sorrow, but simply
cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love.
Only one who risks is free!

(A & W Howard)

visionary thinking

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, visionary, did on March 18th, aged 90.

The Economist reported:

His notions of the future remained unswervingly radical. Sir Arthur knew that outlandish ideas often became reality. But they provoked, he wrote, three stages of reaction. First, "It's completely impossible." Second, "It's possible but not worth doing." Third, "I said was was a good idea all along."

(So true!!)

Autumn

I had my first autumn run this morning- 6am, 10 degrees and dark. I ditched the usual running shorts and singlet for three-quarter leggings and a long-sleeved top. After the first few hundred metres (the hardest part of any run) it was great to be out. The hot coffee and even hotter shower on returning home were all the more appreciated.

It was probably a good thing to get out today. Yesterday I ran on the treadmill at the gym instead. Later I found myself coaching/ heckling a jogger I've never even met before. He was trying to run up the hill from Dee Why to Narraweena. I was driving that direction on the way to meet a friend. He wasn't even a quarter of the way up the hill, but his jog had turned into a shuffle and it didn't look like he had much hope of making it. At this tragic realisation, something welled up within in me and I heard myself saying out aloud, "Come on mate! Don't look at your feet! Head up. Pump your arms. Lift your feet. YOU CAN DO IT!" A quick check in my rear view mirror told the rest of the story... he couldn't.