Monumental Mistake?

Only 2 days to go and I am out of here. It has come around so quickly and I am a little nervous. I suppose that is normal with any big life change, or anything new.

When I rocked up at my first Alpine Trail Ultra I was totally overcome by the immensity of the landscape and wondered how I would ever manage to get through to the finish. But I had trained, I had decided it is what I want to do, so I just did it. Everything hurt, but I was smiling because I was living a dream that had been born many years ago.

Hopefully it is the same with life. Hopefully I am not making a monumental mistake. I do feel a little overwhelmed.

Funny thing is, while I am supposed to be unloading my stuff and getting ready to roll, I've been travelling to Melbourne to run. This weekend I went on down to run 35km from Albert Park to Black Rock and back.  I was running with someone that I like a great deal so it was fun, but we ran mostly on constructed paths. This made the running hard work because there was nothing new or unexpected ahead. There was however a little bit of dirt trail and it was heaven. Even on trails you know  there is always something unexpected around a corner somewhere, even if it is a pile of dog crap! (Pick it up people!)

While some change is good, other change can be shit.  I have this pair of running shoes that I've been holding on to for nearly a year now, they are cool looking and fast. Newton Gravity's. 

The thing about them is they hurt my feet. I don't have particularly wide or abnormal feet, in fact I my feet are rather narrow. However, regular running shoes with a traditional toe box tend to squash my toes together and cause blistering. Knowing this I still decided to run the 35km in them. What the hell was I thinking? I got what I deserved anyway. My toes are bleeding and raw. 

Still, those shoes are in my car waiting until I decide to torture myself again. I suppose some things are harder to get rid of than others.

After a lazy lunch my friend and I decided to head out to Dandenong and run the 1000 Steps a few times on Sunday morning. I thought "Why not".

This time i was smart and wore the shoes I "know", my New Balance Minimus Trail (I think they will be calling them MT10 when they are released here in July). They are the Boom Diggity!

4000 steps later, my quads were busted, my calves were burning and my taped and tortured toes were no worse for wear than they had been at the end of the 35km the day before.

So sometimes we should stick to what we know, and other times we have to try new things. How the hell are we supposed to know when these times are? I suppose we just have to go with it and maybe try to learn not to mess up the same way more than a few dozen times.

This means I can still wear the Newton's on a few more long runs before I REALLY should know better. Right?

A New Life

A few weeks ago I decided to give everything away and live totally new life. I am in the process today of trying to get all of my stuff out of my house. It has been draining trying to decide what to keep and who to give everything to.

I still have so much stuff and so little of it is actually required to live a full life. I've spent so much time working to make the money to accumulate it and as I get rid of it I realise just how much time I've wasted collecting it. 

How did this happen?

Last year I started running, and I started running a lot. At the conclusion of my first year of running I completed my first 100mi race and came 4th. It changed my life. Not the race itself but the whole process of training, travelling, meeting new people and running trails. I just love it.

As part of the training for this I went and picked fruit and lived in a tent. I had very little stuff with me and discovered a new sense of freedom that I had not really experienced since I was a kid. I was living out of a single bag and sleeping on the ground. 

While I was travelling I read a great book, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It would be an overstatement to say that it changed my life, but it certainly brought home some truths that I had lost sight of during my day-to-day life. While I tried to save money to do this or that I found I never had the time to actually do the these things. So instead of saving and waiting I was inspired to step out and just go for it.

I have no idea where this will lead me, I have no idea where I am going or what I am doing but I am heading to the top of Australia to train for a season of 100km and 100mi races this summer. After that? Who knows, but I am following my heart. I am letting go of all the conventions that have ruled my life and living my life the way I have to.