Race for Life 3rd June

Since the finish of Metron the exhibition on 20th May I have been training for the 5k Race for Life which I ran in Oxford’s University Parks along with 3,000 other women yesterday. Due to the intense heat I interspersed running with walking and made it round the course in a very sedate manner. It was great fun despite the blistering heat and I have raised a nice sum for Cancer Research through sponsorship.
Doing the training and the race re-connected me with my enjoyment of running after a long period of injury and physio. I like the solitude and the ease of doing it – just stepping out of my door. I have thought a lot about Alun’s RUN video and the meditative quality that it has. It really does capture something of the beauty as well as the pleasure of running. I do find beauty in moving in a different way through the environment I live in and know well, in experiencing it in another way. I like really looking at details I don’t generally notice, smelling the streets and the hedgerows, feeling the weather. I like the directness of running, of listening to my body, learning how it can move, being so aware of  my footfall and in competing with myself by testing my fitness and age.