When fighting a Bear...

"....you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the Bear's tired."

GV going Grizzly

This is the proverb behind a mantra that might flit through my head on a long run, a tough climb - or in the case of Janathon, any waking moment.

Sometimes the Bear is the guy in front, sometimes it's the trail, sometimes it's just your own weaknesses wanting to get the better of you. You must fight, and hope that the Bear tires first, but there is another option (and this bit is the mantra):

Be the Bear

I have others:

"This too, shall pass" - True for good and bad.
"Reel it in" - Courtesy of Tom, refering to the finish.
"It'll all be okay in the end" - (so if it's not okay, it's not the end)

Some might suggest that these same mantras could be applied to life, but if I were relying on these to get me through each day, I think a bit of life re-assessment might be more useful. Or a good hobby. How about running? Hmmm... within reason perhaps.


The St Swithuns/North Downs Loop

"Thank you for editing carefully" (tee hee)



This morning I set out to connect a series of routes I've run for a number of years, with the addition of a new bit near the start to join the dots. If Janathon is responsible for one thing, it's the exponential increase of footpaths, bridleways and open common that I can now incorporate into routes of more than ten miles.

The plan was to be out for about four hours, and complete a wide loop stretching from Bentley (as featured in TV's "The Village") in the west (on the St Swithuns Way) to Puttenham Common in the east (on the North Downs Way).

The highlights were too many to mention, but the general feel of the run was superb from start to finish.

The trails are firmer today than they have been most of January, and with bridlepaths so choppy at the moment, an effort to use the footpath alternatives paid off. This eastern-most section of St Swithuns Way will make an excellent summer run with it's tarmac interludes, worth a train journey to Winchester to do the whole thing, or broken into halves from Alton.

It was also wonderful to keep moving between the familiar, and unfamiliar. Stringing together sections of  routes I knew with strange links, I kept map in hand until almost the end. Being able to repeatedly look up and think "Wow, I'm here" was uplifting throughout. The iPod never got a look in.

Checking if 4B were home

With all the self-enforced running that Janathon has meant to me, days like this are a huge relief. Like many runners, the process of putting one foot in front of the other while the mind wanders, can be a significant way of dealing with stress, strain, anxiety, and all the negativity that life can produce. On occasions when I don't want to run, I find the route planning therapuetic; and I can often choose whether or not to run in company, depending on my mood.

One of the key Janathon challenges for me has been the removal of a degree of choice. I no longer choose whether to run, I can only choose how. And that in itself, has added to, rather than subtracted from my worries. Much of the running I've done this month has reminded me of the cigarettes I used to smoke. Constantly thinking about the next one creates anxiety, and the relief of each fix is shortlived, after which the anxiety returns, placed on top of an in-tray of other issues unresolved.

One of the main drivers of my Janathon has been to get more out of it than simply mileage, or the raw challenge of running daily. I set myself targets within the challenge, figuring if I'm going to become "hooked" on running for a month, there ought to be some lasting positives.

A run like today's is one of those positives. A route I'd been thinking about for a number of years, run well, under unique circumstances. No Janathon, and there may never have been a St Swithuns/North Downs Loop - which revealed itself as twenty five miles of countryside so engaging that I feel completely reset.

Today, Janathon became the tiring man, and I became the Bear.


Summary:
Today: 25.5 miles, 3:40 hrs, 3518 cals
January: 330.8 miles, 48:07 hrs, 44701 cals