I recently took a longer (yet still only 8km) run than I’m used to as I’ve been increasing my distances over time. In that time I had an epiphany about my life in the light of Covid lockdown. I started seeing my life as a house. I am currently in a house… theres breathing space and there’s windows and doors, and I am able to open and close doors and windows as I wish.
It’s difficult to close a door sometimes, but the knowledge that you can always open it again when it’s safe to go out, helps us to manage the fact that we might feel trapped at this stage. The knowledge that one day, we won’t feel trapped anymore is a relief… it gives hope for the future and even makes me feel safe where I am… sometimes the feeling of being trapped can override the safety of where you actually are, and its vital in such a time to be aware of the fact that what seems like a trap, can actually be your safety.
That 8k run also gave me another epiphany. While running, I took a longer road than usual, which took me on a high and rocky hill. I immediately became frustrated with the impact it would have on my time as it slowed me down, but I pressed on and eventually, the long uphill was followed by long downhill that funnily enough gave me my fastest 1k, fastest mile as well as fastest 5k. Turns out that first slow 3k gave me enough frustration to run like hell for the next 5k.
This made me think a lot. I used to run 10k much faster, yet I ran my fastest 5k in this run. Also, this is much higher and more rocky terrain than I’m used to in spite of my new personal records. Sometimes life is hard and you have to go up a frustrating hill, but you know what, after that a nice and easy fast record breaking downhill awaits… just keep on running!
