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Random ramblings!
It's been a long time since I did one, and I hope you won't mind that I share something different.
I'll begin by saying that as an adult, I haven't been someone who easily makes friends. I don't do the social thing where you invite people over for dinner, go to see films or concerts with them, call them to know how they are doing or to discuss life stuff. I think I have only one friend in that usual sense. (I have to add that my partner is very different so he did a lot of social entertaining when we were in Nice and I was inevitably implicated in some of it).
However, I've always had relationships with people from doing sport. I had a crowd of rock climbers I hanged out with, then I became secretary of my triathlon club and spent a lot of time with the committee, and I also met a lot of trail runners. I saw many of these people regularly, but always to practice our common activity.
Once in a while some of these acquaintances have turned out to be people I shared a lot more with than sport (which was a very big part of my life then). That was the case for A. It was almost uncanny how we met. I was running a race in the Verdon Gorges, 140 km away from Nice. It was an 80 km race and the temperature reached 40c/ 105f that day, so we spent a lot of time walking, and as is often the case you get a chance to talk with other runners. So I started talking with this guy who arrived at the same time I did at the aid station, and we realised we lived 10 mn by foot from one another. We ran in the same two hill parks early morning toward 6, but he ran in the Vinaigrier the days I ran in the Mont Boron, and vice versa. I did triathlon, he was into swim runs. We had both began doing long distance by the same night race, SaintéLyon, which rallies Saint Etienne to Lyon. But it didn't stop there. He went skiing and hiking every winter in the valley where we own a family cabin. He was friend with the people who opened an ecological inn in the village next to where we now live. He kept bees like we did, and he had chickens, like we would a few years later. He was fascinated by permaculture and I was taking a permaculture course at work ; he was also learning about edible plants and flowers, which is one of my partner's pet peeves.
It went on and on, so of course we decided we would see each other again. There were some major differences in our lives though, he worked as an eye surgeon and had two young daughters so he was very busy. So we met a few times to run or swim, exchange honey from our bees, picnic on the beach. When we moved here he came to see us twice for long runs the first two years, then we lost contact.
I do owe him much : he was the one who told us that keeping bees in so isolated a place, we needed a prescription for an insulin pen. He insisted that bee keepers can develop late allergy. As it turned out, I had to use it for a hornet sting. Between the time we called the paramedics and the time I reached the ER it took two hours and a half, and I was told three times that night by various medical staff that it was very lucky I had adrenalin at home.
Anyway, although we haven't seen each other that many times, he's one of the people in Nice that I really appreciate, so I was happy when he got back in touch very recently texting me that he was spending new year's eve at his friend's in our valley. A few days ago, he texted me again to suggest that we should do a trail race together, to get a chance to see one another. It's a race that takes place in the mountains exactly where my brother lives.
The thing is... I have not been training for three years now. It's 42 km and 3000 m.d+, or there is an easier option that would be 25 km and 1800 d+. I first replied that it was great but I would do the 25 km. Then, I talked about it with my partner. He got really excited and said I had to do the 42 km, that it would do me good to really train again, and that he was ready to take over staying at home so that I could run four or five days a week. I think he's tired that I'm so obsessed with the chickens and he knows that if I start having to train hard for a race, I will focus more on that !
So I'm not sure what to do. It's in four months and a half, which is reasonable enough to get in shape to do 42 km if I start training now and commit to it. But that will also mean being less available for the chickens and the garden, while the 25 km would require far less involvement and is still an interesting race.
I'll get back to A. and see what he thinks - the idea is to do the same race of course.
It's strange to think that it seems such a big thing. I used to do 40 km at least twice a month when I trained for 150 km ! But the thing is, just like you realise how healthy you were when you fall ill, I realised how fit I used to be when I gradually stopped training, and now I'm not at all as confident in my abilities !
It's been a long time since I did one, and I hope you won't mind that I share something different.
I'll begin by saying that as an adult, I haven't been someone who easily makes friends. I don't do the social thing where you invite people over for dinner, go to see films or concerts with them, call them to know how they are doing or to discuss life stuff. I think I have only one friend in that usual sense. (I have to add that my partner is very different so he did a lot of social entertaining when we were in Nice and I was inevitably implicated in some of it).
However, I've always had relationships with people from doing sport. I had a crowd of rock climbers I hanged out with, then I became secretary of my triathlon club and spent a lot of time with the committee, and I also met a lot of trail runners. I saw many of these people regularly, but always to practice our common activity.
Once in a while some of these acquaintances have turned out to be people I shared a lot more with than sport (which was a very big part of my life then). That was the case for A. It was almost uncanny how we met. I was running a race in the Verdon Gorges, 140 km away from Nice. It was an 80 km race and the temperature reached 40c/ 105f that day, so we spent a lot of time walking, and as is often the case you get a chance to talk with other runners. So I started talking with this guy who arrived at the same time I did at the aid station, and we realised we lived 10 mn by foot from one another. We ran in the same two hill parks early morning toward 6, but he ran in the Vinaigrier the days I ran in the Mont Boron, and vice versa. I did triathlon, he was into swim runs. We had both began doing long distance by the same night race, SaintéLyon, which rallies Saint Etienne to Lyon. But it didn't stop there. He went skiing and hiking every winter in the valley where we own a family cabin. He was friend with the people who opened an ecological inn in the village next to where we now live. He kept bees like we did, and he had chickens, like we would a few years later. He was fascinated by permaculture and I was taking a permaculture course at work ; he was also learning about edible plants and flowers, which is one of my partner's pet peeves.
It went on and on, so of course we decided we would see each other again. There were some major differences in our lives though, he worked as an eye surgeon and had two young daughters so he was very busy. So we met a few times to run or swim, exchange honey from our bees, picnic on the beach. When we moved here he came to see us twice for long runs the first two years, then we lost contact.
I do owe him much : he was the one who told us that keeping bees in so isolated a place, we needed a prescription for an insulin pen. He insisted that bee keepers can develop late allergy. As it turned out, I had to use it for a hornet sting. Between the time we called the paramedics and the time I reached the ER it took two hours and a half, and I was told three times that night by various medical staff that it was very lucky I had adrenalin at home.
Anyway, although we haven't seen each other that many times, he's one of the people in Nice that I really appreciate, so I was happy when he got back in touch very recently texting me that he was spending new year's eve at his friend's in our valley. A few days ago, he texted me again to suggest that we should do a trail race together, to get a chance to see one another. It's a race that takes place in the mountains exactly where my brother lives.
The thing is... I have not been training for three years now. It's 42 km and 3000 m.d+, or there is an easier option that would be 25 km and 1800 d+. I first replied that it was great but I would do the 25 km. Then, I talked about it with my partner. He got really excited and said I had to do the 42 km, that it would do me good to really train again, and that he was ready to take over staying at home so that I could run four or five days a week. I think he's tired that I'm so obsessed with the chickens and he knows that if I start having to train hard for a race, I will focus more on that !
So I'm not sure what to do. It's in four months and a half, which is reasonable enough to get in shape to do 42 km if I start training now and commit to it. But that will also mean being less available for the chickens and the garden, while the 25 km would require far less involvement and is still an interesting race.
I'll get back to A. and see what he thinks - the idea is to do the same race of course.
It's strange to think that it seems such a big thing. I used to do 40 km at least twice a month when I trained for 150 km ! But the thing is, just like you realise how healthy you were when you fall ill, I realised how fit I used to be when I gradually stopped training, and now I'm not at all as confident in my abilities !
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, but I am glad that there isn't one.
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. I thought he would tell her off but he squealed and walked away, looking all shaken up and not knowing what to do with himself. I may order one of those anti pecking sprays for him. Just when he had feathers finally growing on his butt that was bare and red for almost a year !
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