Running again

I went for my first run yesterday since having Gabriel two and a half months ago.. and it felt soo good!
I had forgotten how running is the best form of "me time" (don't like that phrase) - far better than a bath with scented candles for example! I had forgotten how the action of running shakes your mind clear, a bit like a sieve, leaving only the interesting nuggets to think about..
I had forgotten how free you feel, moving without anyone else, but yourself, and moving with your own energy and will.
I had forgotten how good it is to sweat
It was also very gratifying to feel my body remembering what to do, and how to do it. I was a little scared putting on my running stuff - what if it didn't fit, or it felt uncomfortable. It was like trying on an old self.
It was only three miles and  I am a little stiff today. But it helped me feel more like myself again, which is interesting, as I wouldn't have necessarily thought running was that integral to me. Perhaps it is. And I am grateful to be healthy enough to do it..
Actually, I have applied for a media place for the London Marathon again. If I do get it (I'm on maternity leave, so may not) then I may defer till the year after. But I have already thought about the charity I'd like to run for - the Aiden Goodwin Foundation, so we shall see.
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I've read a couple of good first collections recently, but it was Andrew McMillan's Physical (Cape)that really stayed with me. I loved the visceral tenderness of the poems, many about being a young gay man, and the explorations of masculinity.  What is it to be a man in 2015? How can a man be? I don't have the book to hand to quote, but I will add to this later when I do..
I especially liked his poem Urination, which is an almost spiritual celebration of the male body, and what enters and leaves it. Highly recommended..

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