Running Free
Flying again, through the air, five miles high…
With a whole 4.5 hours ahead…
I love this time so much… Between worlds…
Life between lives…
Each new place we land, is like a new life… Since we left the UK, just one month ago, we have lived in Gozo with Jamie, Pru and Jane and then Malta with Malcolm and now we are flying away from Cyprus, where we were mainly with Deryck, to live in England for a while…
This morning I set off to run along the coastal path, and I met the Chippenham harriers crowd – it was fun to run with them for awhile and chat…
I have loved re connecting with Liz, their group leader, who I met here four years ago…
We connected then and the connection remains – it doesn’t need many words…
We were in the same quiz team at Malcolm’s famous ‘after race party’ – Deryck’s darlings our team name ! We won… I announced at the beginning of proceedings ‘I reckon we are the winning team’!
We were, our prize a pair of green laces each…
Race day dawned bright and still after a windy stormy day the day before…
Anadi and I had swum in the wild waves, influenced and inspired by seeing the locals clambering down the steps for ‘business as usual’ early in the morning…
But on Sunday it was already hot at 8am, the air still, as we made our way to the race start…
I love the atmosphere on race day…
We had stood on our balcony at 6.30am and seen Malcolm driving off with the Marathon runners, taking them to Aphrodite’s rock for their race start at 7.30…
I ran to the fort to warm up, and we watched the half marathon leave at 8.25, at 8.30 the 5k runners sped past us, and then at 8.40, the ‘starter master’ counted us down with 15 seconds to go and we were off…
I had chosen to run without GoPro and so without the GPS/ HR/ pace of the Tom Tom to let me know what was happening…
I ran free, I just ran along the road as fast as I could.
I felt flowing, the sun shone…
It was an out and back course… Up the road we ran, around a ’roundabout’ and back home on the other side…
Anadi and I waved as we passed by one another…
I finished 29th overall in the whole field, which was about 300 strong, and I was the 2nd female finisher…
I ran 44.47 – that was what came out of my ‘running body’, and in this new phase in my new running life, I am happy with whatever comes out; unlike my younger years when a harsh critic lived within me… I am happy because it is an expression of me in motion, my true essence…
And anyway the moment if is done, it is in the past…!
My intention is to give myself even more time to follow my hearts calling, to keep running all over the world, to run free in the sun… To meditate in the running step…
Knowing that I am consciousness and that my inner directive shapes my journey…
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.
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Email : juliachitaylor@gmail.com
