Well – first things first – happy new year ! Every day is the first day of the next 365 days of your life, so you can choose any day you like to decide what you want to do with it, but of course the 1st January always seems like the obvious moment to look back, and more importantly, look forward. I’m not sure that new year’s resolutions are a great idea, as they often mean stopping doing something you like doing, or starting to do something you really don’t want to do. Seems like an invitation to fail. That doesn’t mean though, that it’s not a good moment to set yourself some challenge that maybe you’ve had in mind but keep putting off because it’s easier to not do something than to do something.
Having kidded myself that I was getting over the pelvis/hip/knee pain that has aggravated me for the thick end of two years, at the start of November I did an uncomfortable, scrawny little 3.8 mile run which as usual was followed immediately by several days where even just walking was painful. So the decision to just quietly give up seemed a fairly easy one to make. But a few weeks on and I feel I have to try to get going again – but the motivation to get back on the horse has come from an unexpected source.
I’ve only ever been skiing once, a couple of years ago, and pretty hopeless I was too, so I don’t have any burning passion for it. However, I’ve been watching a you tube series called “The Fifty” , which follows a guy named Cody Townsend as he works his way through climbing and the skiing back down 50 classic ski descents in some of the toughest and most challenging mountains in North America and Canada. The thing is, watching this series hasn’t suddenly made me want to put on some skis and head for the alps, but it has reminded me how good it is to get outdoors and do something !!! Something, anything, that maybe causes some discomfort or is a challenge but just having a go at it makes you feel that little bit more alive.
So on New Year’s Eve I went and took part in the Tonbridge park run, and then went out yesterday and did a few more gentle miles on New Year’s Day. It felt necessary to end 2022 with something positive, and equally important to set the tone for the new year. Now I’m not suggesting that running a few gentle miles compares with skiing down an almost vertical mountain, but having more or less decided to call it a day, and having not run beyond 5 miles in 20 months – at least it’s a small challenge, and one that I can improve on. It was also good to meet up with a few old running mates in Tonbridge – Maurice Marchant, Lyndon Collins, Jonathan Rickards and Lionel Stielow amongst others – and although the park run time was a pedestrian 28′ 44″, it sets a target to beat and a new starting point to build upon. Who knows – I might even work on my skiing this year !!!
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