He looked into her eyes and said “Tell me, what do you truly desire?”
And she replied “To run an ultramarathon, with my collie Freya!”
Lucifer’s face was a picture of shock “Really? You? With a history of chronic back pain, dodgy knees and barely enough time to sleep let alone train?”
“Yup. Because I have buckets of bloody mindedness, and everything else is fixable”
And she replied “To run an ultramarathon, with my collie Freya!”
Lucifer’s face was a picture of shock “Really? You? With a history of chronic back pain, dodgy knees and barely enough time to sleep let alone train?”
“Yup. Because I have buckets of bloody mindedness, and everything else is fixable”
Okay, so the dialogue is adapted from ‘Lucifer’ (an Amazon show I’ve been watching) and I’ve never had that actual conversation with the devil. But for the last 6 years I’ve had this crazy idea in the back of my head about running an ultramarathon with my dogs. It started when I canicrossed for the first time with Finn and Farah, then finding out one of my research colleagues was an ultrarunner, and the dream was born.
On Sunday 19th March 2017 at 18 minutes past 1 in the morning, Freya and I finished a 55mile run across the North York Moors from Helmsley to Guisbrough that included 2,700metres of ascent (that’s a LOT of hills!). We ran, walked, stumbled and hobbled for 16hrs and 18minutes.
Watching Freya’s keen ears and steady paws kept me on track, and there were long hours of silence between us as we travelled together. That feeling of relentless forward movement as a team will stay with me.
On Sunday 19th March 2017 at 18 minutes past 1 in the morning, Freya and I finished a 55mile run across the North York Moors from Helmsley to Guisbrough that included 2,700metres of ascent (that’s a LOT of hills!). We ran, walked, stumbled and hobbled for 16hrs and 18minutes.
Watching Freya’s keen ears and steady paws kept me on track, and there were long hours of silence between us as we travelled together. That feeling of relentless forward movement as a team will stay with me.
I’ll write more about our adventures and our BIG lessons in future weeks, not to mention the amazing support crew on the race and at home who made it all happen for us.
But for now I genuinely want to know - what’s your crazy, out of this world, terrifying desire or goal?
Because it turns out with planning, training and commitment, pretty much anything is possible.
Yours with blistered feet, aching knees and joyful heart
Morag
PS Freya has slept a bit more, eaten a lot and otherwise is baffled as to the lack of long walks this week….
PPS Now that's out of the way, I'm cracking on with planning our Canicross Classes and Challenges. We'll be starting gently though so no need to panic if the idea of 3k is scary.
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