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Poet on the Run

Finding sense and making art – one run at a time

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HE DID IT!!!! ❤️😭❤️😭❤️ . Yes that is blood. He took a nasty fall out on the bike course but got through with sheer grit and determination to finish in 07:41:25 💪 I am so freaking proud of him. #ironChris #woburner
This scruffy looking nerfherder is taking on his first ever half iron distance triathlon on the morning. He has worked his backside off (quite literally) training for it over the last 6 months. He has put in hours of mindless bike based torture on the turbo. He has run on legs that felt like 2x4s. He has put up with splashy idiots in the pool. To say I'm proud of him already is a bloody understatement. Go get em tomorrow Mister! 💪🔥 #ironChris #woburner
Caritas, Maria-Theresa Straße, Freiburg 💔 This #tbt is brought to you by the discovery that the place I stayed in when I first came to Freiburg as an Erasmus student back in 2008 has been demolished. . Caritas was more than a student halls. It was a haven in the middle of a summer that can only be described as cataclysmic. My dad had died that May, and my world had less fallen apart, more been ripped up by the roots and mulched. I was carrying the guilt of having literally run away from everything happening at home, abandoning my family to deal. My boyfriend at the time was both physically and emotionally abusive - and he used the apparent support he was giving at the time to crush me. . I had won the scholarship to attend a summer course in Germany weeks before my dad passed - it's the last thing I did that he was actually proud of. The night before I flew out, my then boyfriend didn't so much sulk as steamroller. I still don't talk about the details of what happened. But come the 3am alarm for my flight, I got up and snuck out of the house to go anyway. I arrived broken. . But then the magic happened. Caritas was where I met friends I remain close with to this day. Caritas was mishmashed languages and unasked questions. It was being surrounded by mountains and forest and quiet. It was late nights on the roof drinking and flirting and being as young as my years when the rest of the time, I felt ancient. It was sunburn and skinny dipping in lakes and dancing until 5am to catch the first tram home. It was lying to that boyfriend to hide the joy so he wouldn't tear me apart. It was lying to my friends to hide the turmoil so they wouldn't judge me for what I'd done. It was not eating for the first week because nothing would stay down. It was spending my 20th birthday having a vineyard picnic and laughing. . Caritas was the steady embodiment of the best and worst month of my life. I visited it again some years ago with Chris, and the memories nearly bowled me over. . And now... Now that huge piece of my past just *doesn't exist*. I carry all these pieces of memory, and I don't know what to do with them any more.
🎶Walk through the world with care, my love  And sing the things you see  Let new names take and root and thrive and grow  And even as you stumble on through machair sands eroding  Let the fern unfurl your grieving, let the heron still your breathing  Let the selkie swim you deeper, oh my little silver-seeker  Even as the hour grows bleaker, be the singer and the speaker  And in city and in forest, let the larks become your chorus  And when every hope is gone, let the raven call you home🎶 (from The Lost Words @robgmacfarlane @juliefowlis and @karinepolwart) 🍃🍃🍃 Thank you @a.cameron2478 for being our guide in the wild and rugged places. And thank you Germany, once again, for showing me magic when I needed it most. #wildmagic #homewardbound
Today's adventure was a very warm run from Hinterhermsdorf along (and occasionally crossing) the Czech border, through a very cool ravine to follow the river, and out into Kirnitzschtal. There were sunny meadows, deep forests, a few gribbley dark tunnels and a whole lot of awesome. Definitely one to come back to some time to do the full route which extends down to Schmilka ✌️ #borninthemud #crewlove
Holy cow but today was an adventure 😁 Starting in Stadt Wehlen we went into the southern part of the Sächsische Schweiz area to summit the Kleine Bärenstein, Königstein, Pfaffenstein (featuring the death staircase - as in, you get to the top of the gigantic 500m stone mesa by taking a rickety ladder/staircase directly up - and sometimes through - the rock), then down and on to the Görischstein via the Falkenschlucht (more gribbley via ferrata, super narrow slot canyons, ladders in the pitch black...) then finally up to the Papststein for a stop in the pub at the top before we came down into Bad Schandau. 13 odd hiked miles, just over 1000m climbed and WOW what a day! 🤘 Additional kudos need to go to Chris for facing his fear of heights (and more accurately, rickety things at heights) to get up some of the sketchier routes 💕 #borninthemud #hikingadventures #hilltrainingwithAl #crewlove

Recent Posts

  • Lessons from Barn Swallows
  • Trail Magic
  • Telling the Story
  • Tales from the Trail: Inconvenient Water
  • Tales from the Trail – Homecoming

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HE DID IT!!!! ❤️😭❤️😭❤️ . Yes that is blood. He took a nasty fall out on the bike course but got through with sheer grit and determination to finish in 07:41:25 💪 I am so freaking proud of him. #ironChris #woburner
Poetry

Lessons from Barn Swallows

The summer wind brought me in and I came to rest In the harbour where he found me; Wind-circler, carrying … Continue reading Lessons from Barn Swallows

Trail Magic
Poetry

Trail Magic

They say that salt water is a great purifier So I will run to the sea Turn my bones to … Continue reading Trail Magic

Telling the Story
Adventures, Running, SWCP, Trail Running

Telling the Story

It has been nearly 8 months now since I completed the South West Coast Path and I still struggle to … Continue reading Telling the Story

Tales from the Trail: Inconvenient Water
Adventures, Running, SWCP, Trail Running

Tales from the Trail: Inconvenient Water

So it’s been a little while since I did a proper write up but this one seems apt to start … Continue reading Tales from the Trail: Inconvenient Water

Tales from the Trail – Homecoming
Adventures, Hiking, Running, SWCP, Trail Running

Tales from the Trail – Homecoming

And on the fifth day, I was in Devon. My running buddy John had decided to come down and run … Continue reading Tales from the Trail – Homecoming

Tales from the Trail – Dorset
Adventures, Hiking, Running, SWCP, Trail Running

Tales from the Trail – Dorset

Well, I have a whole new appreciation for why they call it ‘the Rollercoaster’…. Day 1 took me from Studland … Continue reading Tales from the Trail – Dorset

Saddle Up
Adventures, Running, SWCP, Trail Running

Saddle Up

It’s go time. Eighteen months of preparation, of training, worrying, pushing myself to the limits of what I could handle, … Continue reading Saddle Up

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