What Will Unfold in These Barefoot Steps…
Today I ran around the smooth beautifully kept cricket green with Anadi – (very early in the morning!) – for the last time for a few months… I have imprinted in my memory the vision of green, greenness, waving willows, smooth pitches, white boards… and, quiet peace countryside…
The hum of London traffic in the distance…
I stopped on the last lap to chat on my vlog about my new running plan… It came of itself, it was born through my feet…
The running has gathered momentum, a week of 40 miles emerged of itself… This prompted me to see the plan, and to follow it, trust it…
The idea that has arisen… ?
To run 40 miles for 10 weeks… My impromptu week set the bar; and so last week I repeated the same amount of mileage and called week 1 of 10… Week 2 is now unfolding… My watch records it in kilometres… 64k /40m
I haven’t made a running plan for a few years now…
I let go of that when Anadi and I first met and it was evident after a few months that the relating was taking us where it would, and the time to ‘hold on’ to my mileage goals and running plans was gone…
Until now….
I wonder what the road will reveal, where my feet are going…
We returned home from our run, and drove to visit Kay, Anadi’s Mum where we have spent a very happy day, catching up, spending time together talking; with Kay, and also her four beautiful cats, her pony and her lovely dog who wanted nothing more than to have her tummy tickled all the time…!
While we were out for lunch in a local restaurant, the heavens opened… Heavy bouncing huge drops of rain, shiny sploshes, leaping off the road outside as they landed…
I liked the feeling on my bare feet… The ground still warm, but wet and the sky heavy with grey black clouds, dark blue… The grass wet wet wet; my feet felt the earth so keenly… It’s like they are newly born; in wonder of everything around them, wanting to know and touch and feel and experience…
Running the miles feels different too, like my feet are young and are getting fitter in each step… Wanting more, strengthening opening blossoming… I feel I am at the very beginning of their life and so a new life for me, in each step…
The energy of enthusiasm, the race ahead to discover new lands – forward motion; captured in the moment, each barefoot step… freedom unfolding…
Still learning…
How to run free, to be free, to find out rather than plan… The paradox of life. This plan is opening new vistas to ‘find out’ what will unfold in these barefoot steps…
I have been running all of my life – it feels I was born to run. In the running step I experienced freedom and my true expression. I came to see that I needed to ‘get out of the way of myself’ and let my energy flow through the running step; allow it to express itself in the dance and the motion of running. I ran for England and GB for some years. My first international was in 1979, a three mile cross country race; and I continued to run at international level until 1993. Two of my best results were first place in the Dublin City Marathon in 1985 and 7th place woman, 3rd British woman in the 1986 London Marathon in a time of 2.36.31, which gained me selection for the Commonwealth Games.
As a little girl I ran barefoot for many years, and then I put on shoes to race around the world. Fifty years later I am travelling the world as a nomad with my husband Anadi and I have taken off my shoes and I am running barefoot again….
Mobile: +44 (0) 7866 396 233
Email : juliachitaylor@gmail.com
