Get scared.
“Do one thing everyday that scares you.” Eleanor Roosevelt Last week I decided to accept this challenge. I chose to go trail running at night… solo. Now I love running trails solo, but have never ventured out into the night on the trails. I have journeyed out into early morning darkness, but that was based on the knowledge that the darkness would quickly turn to the lovely golden light that brings with it feelings of safety and confidence. This run was going to be very different, it was going to start in darkness and end in darkness. There would be no warming glow of safe sunshine, just the bubble of light cast from my headlamp. I tried to keep my focus within this little bubble of light, not thinking so much of what might be happening outside of it, what might be scurrying in the depths of the forest or peering at me from the darkness with vision more accustomed to nightlife. I left the house that night, reached the car and turned right back towards the front door, but just before I reached it, I forced myself to stop, turn the other direction and head right back to the car. “Just go!” When I actually got to the start of the trail and started running the first section, which runs parallel to the highway, the presence and light cast from passing cars gave me a sense of security. Somehow I convinced myself to just run to the top of the section, before it spit me into the forest. “Just cut it short it’s okay” I told myself. But the closer I got to top I couldn’t let myself be that easily persuaded, I knew I would regret not following through. So into the dark forest I went. Shouting and clapping as I went, I refused to look behind me, which I often do on trail runs during the day to make sure I am not in the way of oncoming bikers or faster runners. But this time I knew if I looked behind I would see only a few feet of light cast by my headlamp and then darkness. In all honesty the only fear I had that night was of large animals that may be roaming looking for a night-time snack, and I did not want to surprise anything that was out on the trails looking for food. My mind mostly turned to cougars which frequent this particular area of town. I had to keep telling myself that the only difference on the trails at night is the absence of light; there was nothing out to get...
I run fast past Graveyards
Close to where I live there is a scenic loop trail that I like to run when I’m feeling restless and need to move. The track is wide, has a bunch of intersecting trail options if I want to mix things up, it’s only a 2 minute drive from my door and I’m pretty much in the forest right from the start. It also happens to pass right next to a Graveyard. The first few times I passed by I didn’t even notice it. It’s facade and grounds are a lot more subdued to what I’m used to coming from Ireland where medieval cemeteries lie around every corner, with tall Round Towers and large ornate Celtic crosses. Eventually though, I did notice it. I noticed the gravestones and acknowledged that this was the final resting place for all those people. Sometimes as I’d be approaching the graveyard my pace would have slowed, I’d be in my own head, thinking about problems that I needed to solve which are never really actual problems in the grand scheme of things. I wouldn’t be enjoying my run at all. My legs would feel heavy, my shoulders stiff, my knees tight. But as I’d turn the corner and see the entrance to the graveyard, shaded by the large branches of two old oak trees I’d be reminded about how trivial my problems really were. Here lay people that could no longer experience life in any capacity. What would they give to be able to experience this run that I was on, regardless of how bad I imagined it felt? “Part of us always knows that we’re just a Doctors visit away… from being startlingly reminded of the fact of our own mortality” - Sam Harris Death, to me, is always the elephant in the room. In Western culture at least you can’t even bring the subject up. It’s deemed “morbid” and “macabre”. If discussion surrounding it does come up somebody will inevitably say something along the lines of “let’s lift the mood, eh? Why can’t we talk about something positive?”. I find this utterly mind boggling. Death, to me, should only be a topic that is avoided when the possibility of living life fully is not an option. Western society contains the only humans on the planet that have a freedom to shape their lives how they see fit. The vast majority of people who exist right now have no option but to live the lives they were born into. In the West we have freedom to become what we imagine. We have the resources to do so and the security, largely, to...
What motivates you?
I can’t believe I almost didn’t get out on the trails today. Let me tell you how the morning started. The alarm went off at 5:30,which thank goodness for the end of daylight savings time, was actually only 6:30. Nonetheless the alarm was set early as Leigh was heading out on a hike/climb with some friends and I decided to take a day to myself (yes sometimes we do things separately). I thought I may as well make the most of the day, get up with Leigh make some breakfast and coffee and then head for an early morning training session at the bouldering gym, as I would probably have the gym to myself at that hour of the morning. Where Jack-o’-Lanterns go to die? How I would have felt if I stayed home. The bouldering gym. Sunlight beams through the trees. This is exactly how it played out as well. I seen Leigh off and was at the gym by 7:45. I played around for an hour, and I say play because it is way too much fun in there to call it training, and then decided to call it after I started to feel a bit sore and too pumped to stay on any of the holds. Made it home by around 9:00 and decided to have a second breakfast, which ended up being a little more leisurely than it should have been, but hey it’s Sunday! It’s always good to take some time for reflection. After a little perusing on the computer I came across an article (check it out here) by a local ultrarunner about staying motivated during the dark, rainy winter season of the PNW. Now today was nothing but sunshine but it was a good thing I read it when I did, because at that moment I was contemplating a nice long nap! I was starting to lose motivation fast, my mind was trying to convince me I was too tired and that I should be kind to myself. This is the oldest trick in the book though, my brain was trying to convince me of something I knew I would deeply regret later, and I almost fell for it. I read through the article and it smartened me up right quick! “The less you do, the less you’ll want to do. The more you do, the more you’ll want to do.” Those words kept buzzing through my head and as I lay on the bed feeling sorry for myself I firmly decided to get up and just put my running gear on. “You know you’ll feel better after you run.” “Just take...
The Shoulder Season Shuffle
Before moving from Ireland to Canada I had never heard the term “shoulder season” before. Largely because Ireland only has 1 Season, which is that it’s rainy, a little cold, a little warm, sometimes sunny, all year round. Whereas Canada, more specifically, Southwest British Columbia where we live, definitely has 4 distinct seasons, well, that isn’t entirely true, it’s more like 2 seasons with 2 shoulders abutting them. The two main seasons are Winter and Summer, or, colloquially for outdoor enthusiasts, Snow Season and Bug Season. Spring and Fall feel like blips on the radar, as soon as they start it feels like they’ve already ended. Which is why they’re known as the shoulders, Fall is the trailing edge of Summer leading into Winter, and Spring is the trailing edge of Winter. They’re periods of transition and flux, before the relatively stable conditions of Summer and Winter settle in. This flux creates, predictably, unpredictable weather. You can have daytime highs in temperatures that feel like Summer and nighttime lows that feel like Winter. Trusting forecasts even a day in advance is usually a fools errand. At this time of year, personally, I try to look at the forecast the morning of a trip and even then I take it with a pinch of salt as the weather can vary, dramatically, in the mountains from valley to valley. At this time of year, in the Fall, if you want to continue experiencing the outdoors, you have to be flexible and zen about it. You have to be mentally prepared for the fact that, even though the forecast is for sunshine it may in fact start snowing on you on the top of a mountain. As the song goes “Que Sera, Sera…” Last weekend, the first weekend of October, was a typical Fall weekend. The preceding weekend had seen the mountains in our corner of British Columbia turn, almost overnight, from Summer to Winter. A large storm had rolled in and dumped massive amounts of precipitation on everything. People sometimes say to me “You’re Irish, you must be used to the rain”, I can tell you, we don’t get rain like that in Ireland. It was “biblical” as the expression goes, with curtains of rain coming down. We were signed up to run the Rubble Creek Classic that Sunday, a ~25km trail race through a high mountain pass in Garibaldi Provincial Park. By early on Saturday though the organizers postponed it to the following weekend. In typical fashion, we shuffled things around with word of the postponement and went for a run locally. This weekend the forecast looked good and I...
Amazeballs
I wanted to share one of my absolute favourite recipes. You have probably seen quite a few versions of “snack or energy balls” around, but as a lover of everything that is almond I love this one. No cooking, no fussing and no prep time required. These are a cinch to make. Just throw the ingredients into a food processor, wiz it up and then roll into balls.Within minutes you will be enjoying a delicious healthy treat. Here is the recipe: Amaze Balls (Raw Cacao Almond Balls) Ingredients: 11 dates 1/2 cup almond butter 1/4 almond flour (optional) 1 cup raw almonds 1/4 raw cacao powder or nibs 1 tbsp raw honey 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 2 tbsp hemp seeds 2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 goji berries (soak for 1-2 minutes in water to soften) 2 tsp chia seeds sesame seeds Directions: Place all the ingredients except for the sesame seeds in a mixer and wiz until smooth. With your hands roll the mixture into small balls. Then pour the sesame onto a plate or in a bowl and roll the balls in until covered. Place the balls on a plate and refrigerate until hard. Tip: If you love the taste of sesame,try toasting the seeds before hand. It really adds an extra layer of flavour! Enjoy! (This recipe has been shared and adapted from one of my lovely friends who was kind enough to make and share more than a few versions of this recipe with me until it became what it is...
