Dreams of a journey ....

Dreams of a journey ……

Sometimes things don’t always happen as we plan or as we hope. We had a dream to make an expedition to Cho Oyu - to reach the summit and then return to Kathmandu under our own steam. For each of us in a different way it was to be an incredible endurance challenge. But now we look deep inside ourselves for a different kind of endurance.

I was prepared to perhaps not realise my dream of reaching the summit if we had bad weather, or because of the cold, the altitude, or perhaps being sick. I was prepared that perhaps after attempting to climb an 8000’er I might not have the strength to run back to Kathmandu in a good time.

But I think the one thing that I didn’t expect was not even to see our mountain.

I write from Kathmandu, as we wait for our flight back home. We are fit, well and acclimatized - but - for us - with the Chinese decision to close the borders between Nepal and Tibet until at least 15th October - our dream must wait and we have taken the decision to postpone our expedition until (we hope) autumn 2010.

Our life is movement, it is a journey, not a destination. Sometimes we ‘wonder why’, but perhaps this is part of what Tibet has to teach us - to have the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can and to have the wisdom to know the difference.


Thank you for being with me.

Read about our journey and our decision: http://thenorthfaceeu.typepad.com/trilogyexpedition/

Namaste

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Until the end of October I am on expedition in the Himalaya - please forgive me - I may not be able to update my blog - but there WILL be news on The North Face website - so please, please read there if you are interested!

I will be thinking of you all.

Namaste!

http://thenorthfaceeu.typepad.com/trilogyexpedition/

Back to the chaos of a city, the sights, smells, noise and heat that are Kathmandu ….

It brings back memories of 2 years ago, a journey to the summit of Ama Dablam and running back to Kathmandu. Precious memories of this world - this world that is a world away from ‘home’, a world away from the familiarity of Europe.

24 hours in the city - the confusion of tiredness after travelling over 30 hours and kris-crossing time zones, and this after the intensity and emotion of a fleeting weekend in New York for my younger brother’s wedding. But finally we had a night’s sleep, my bags are packed for the acclimatisation leg of our journey, and I can really start to believe and to feel ‘here’ and that this incredible adventure is about to begin.

Tomorrow the mountains are waiting for us - and I look forward being back once again in the Khumbu. Step by step, one step at a time. Each moment to be savoured.

We will see the sky - not limited to glimpses caught between high buildings, not clouded by dust and dirt - but the wide open sky of the mountains. It will be our daily bread - food for the soul.

Alone, in the clear air and searching sunlight, we are afoot with the quiet gods, and men can know each other and themselves for what they are.
A.F. MUMMERY


In three short weeks we leave for Kathmandu and it will be the start of our Cho Oyu Trilogy Expedition. Three short weeks and a world away ….. a world away from the familiarity of these Alpine mountains in Europe, from friends and from family. But before I can focus completely my energy on Cho Oyu and the journey ahead, there are a few things to think about.

In a little less than 2 days I will be standing in the Place du Triangle de l’Amitie in the centre of Chamonix. Alone with my thoughts - at the start line of my 3rd The North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc - alone with my own hopes, expectations, fears and doubts. Excited and yet trepidatious. The spirit of the Ultra Trail is a special one - the moments of camaraderie with fellow runners, with the volunteers, with all the supporters - something to be treasured. The cries of ‘bon courage’ keeping you going long after you thought you were finished. But still there are moments of feeling entirely alone. Alone in the sense that it is only us that can make our race. Those hours ahead are the unknown. But somehow in the unknown we will come to know ourselves deeper, to know ourselves for what we are. Race or no race, there is no victory except the joy that you feel if you let your run ‘flow’. And so each of us can feel that ‘victory’ ….

Our Trilogy Expedition too … so much is the unknown.

What does it mean to me at this moment?
‘Belonging. A dream. On foot to the summit heights. On the run across the mountain trails. Simplicity. Focus. Solitude and camaraderie. The arrival and the in-between. The preparation and the unknown.’

But for sure we will find the clear air and searching sunlight?
And there we will come to know each-other and ourselves for what we are.

The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.
EMILE ZOLA

Running is an art …..
So maybe we need a little bit of a gift ….
But even when we have the gift, we need to do a little bit of work …

Endurance - it’s more than just competing in ultra distance races - it is more than simply running. It’s the lifestyle of never looking for the easy way out. It’s finding opportunities whatever the situation. It is a freedom, if you have the courage to seize that freedom. It’s an exploration towards the edge. For each of us this ‘edge’ will be in a different place. And that place will be constantly changing. It is the journey to find that edge which maybe teaches us more about ourselves.

But back to the moment …
Another weekend, another race - 78km in the Graubunden. I’ll make the start-line, but with cracked ribs and sore grazes from the last race - I’ve come to an edge before I even start. And the last race - less than two weeks ago - the IAU World Trail Championships (68km and ±3500m) - Bronze Medal for Great Britain. Just a little bit of the magic seemed to come back …. until my head forgot to race, and I fell, and I fell again!

So for now my work is to allow things just to flow, just to be what they will … and to run for the love of it. One step at a time.

The longest day of the year …..

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Spring melts into summer
the days lengthen, and so do the thoughts ….
a time for growth - for doing, for thought, hopes, plans.

A time for living in the moment,
Then we know what it truly is to be rich?

Run - run lightly and run quietly
It’s to do with attention - listening to yourself
And it’s to do with intention - thinking ‘lightly’
Grounding the feet and the body so the spirit can fly …..
Mindful running - graceful, it becomes a work of art, an act of creation.

Why do you run?
Sometimes, and for all of us this is true, we are running away …..
Sometimes we are running to search ….
But if we realise deep down that the truth of our running is that in our running, in our moving,
We ‘find’ ourselves …
Then for us running is the gift that lets us know ourselves deeper.
And then for us, when we loose our way for a time,
our ‘moving’ hindered by a physical injury or a mental disquiet,
It is then that we loose ourselves.

Take some time
just to ‘be’ - and just to ‘be’ in the mountains or in the nature
Draw on the strength you find, use that strength as the core of your ‘movement’.
Run lightly - be light of foot, light of heart and light of spirit.
Lightness - not in the sense of lack of care or of thought.
Lightness as a humility, a realisation that the world is far greater than our own concerns.
Light as a gentleness - both in our relations with eachother, and our impact on our environment.

Be ‘mindful’ then maybe, just maybe, the run will ‘flow’.

Alpine Trail Running in Chamonix, France

Would you like to run on some mountain trails? We are hosting a training course in the Alps this summer at the end of June .... based in Chamonix, with the option of either a full week from 21st June to the 28th June, or a short week from 21st June to the 24th June.

A beautiful mountain setting, a fully catered chalet with hot tub, and even the possibility of competing in the Mont Blanc Cross at the end of the week (either 10km or half marathon)...!

"Join us running in nature - be inspired by the beauty of the mountains,
challenge yourself and you will find another world."

You can find more information on the Tracks and Trails website.

“Alone, in the clear air and searching sunlight, we are afoot with the quiet gods, and men can know each other and themselves for what they are.”
MUMMERY, 1894

Knowing yourself for what you are ….

It’s a warm, almost balmy evening - I’m sitting in a café in a church square of Mainz (Germany). A long way from the winter snows …. It was a long winter this year - maybe too long?

‘Sometimes running is a joy, and sometimes it feels hard.’ Do your own words ever come back to haunt you?

Today for me was confirmation that I’ve lost (I hope only for the moment) the magic that was in my legs? A flat half marathon on the road - in a time that, for me, was very slow. My legs seem to have forgotten how to run fast, my head seems to have forgotten how to push myself, and my heart seems to have forgotten how to will the head and the legs to play the game. But it’s early days. The long winter of ski alpinism races and running mainly on the snow happened more by situation perhaps than by design. But as it worked out I couldn’t help feeling that a break from road training would be a good thing in the hope of being strong and injury free for the summer. That was the ‘theory’, but it’s the practice I’m left with now ….

How to coax the heart and soul to convince the head and the legs to play the game? Just for a while longer, just so I can see how far I can go. Just to feel that magic again. Race or no race, there is no victory, no reward except the joy you are living while you are ‘dancing your run’1. Just to dance again …

1 Fred Rohe in ‘The Zen of Running’