This runner is not for turning
The Spine Race has been calling all week, but I'm sticking to my 5Ks
All week, every time my finger has pressed on that Instagram logo on my phone (which it often does without me even intending it), up has popped image after image of weary people grimacing, or trudging through snow and ice - or lit up artistically in the night - during “Britain’s most brutal ultra marathon”, aka The Spine Race. I think there may have been more photographers on the course than competitors, but then it does make for some incredible shots.
Here are a few random samples below, (with links to the relevant Instagram accounts) …
Despite the amazing imagery, however, my head won’t be turned. I will not be signing up to take part any time soon. I can see how it could happen. The intensity of it all is compelling, as is the challenge (could I do that? you wonder); the extreme wildness, the beauty, the memories that would last a lifetime.
But, at the same time, I know the harsh reality that comes with all that. Wishing you could lie down and die. Cursing that you ever thought you could do a race like that. The oozing pain in your joints. The bare-faced, scolding misery. The affect on everyone who has to hold the fort for you before, during the race, and afterwards.
While I’m glad that I’ve experienced such things - and they really are, in the end, life-affirming, moving, unforgettable - I’m happy to be sticking to the shorter stuff for now.
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There was an interesting piece in the Irish Examiner newspaper this week. I wonder if it’s a taste of things to come, but in an editorial, the newspaper picked up on my criticism of Ireland’s lack of biodiversity in a recent article I wrote in the Guardian. It’s very easy to romanticise Ireland, and perhaps people will be expecting that in my book - and perhaps there is a little of it in there, too - but also I’ve tried to be as honest as I can be, and I wonder how the criticisms will go down. In this case, the editorial was in full agreement with me, and used my comment to start its own discussion of the issue.
