Live Your Passion
Friday…
‘This is a funny holidays.. Always with computer, working working…’ The waiter said to me yesterday…
I’m not ‘on a holiday’ I explained, my life is a holiday… This is how I like to spend my time…!
They seem to like me being here, Anadi pops back and forth to have a coffee, share some lunch… And I am settled in my office by the sea…
Today we started the day with a run in the hills… Malcolm drove us there in the mini bus but I have ‘logged’ the route so that I can run there for a long run on Sunday…
Yesterday I discovered a 10 kilometre circuit… All along the coastal prom, four beaches, up a hill and then back along the wide pedestrian walk ways that allow for great running…
My new life, for awhile, before we take off to France at the end of next week…
I was chatting with a client who knows Anadi well…
We had been talking about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs with reference to the seven main chakras through the centre of the body….
I said how I was experimenting with not having the stability of sameness, security, ‘home’ as such, finding out that the planet is my home..
He felt Anadi a perfect fellow explorer for this… I agreed.
I said how I am more ‘England and ‘home’ orientated ‘ than he is and how from time to time Anadi has been known to hear me say ‘ I feel like I want to go home, but I haven’t got a home to go to..!’
And my client and I agreed that Anadi isn’t like this..
‘He would be happy in a tent in the middle of a field in China’ he laughed…
I relayed this to Anadi, who agreed, then smiled and said… ‘Maybe not in a tent…I would prefer a bit more luxury…
We have been joined by the British Paralympic wheelchair squad, four track athletes, we had breakfast this morning with Hannah, Rich, Isaac and Steve, as well as Karen who is part of the support team and Jenni their coach…
Two more athletes are arriving over the weekend…
Later….
We piled into two mini buses and drove to Palma for a run and a wheelchair training session.
It was fascinating to watch the training chairs be assembled… ‘It takes more time to get ready to train than to actually train’, Rich laughed as we stood in the sun surrounded by wheels and chairs…
‘Yes’ I laughed too… ‘It reminds me of when I used to sail with my Dad and getting the boat ready seemed to take as long as the actual sail…!’
But soon we were ready; Malcolm, Anadi and I set off running first, and after about a mile Rich sped past… It was very impressive to witness…
I had to ‘manage myself’ not to ‘worry’ about them along the cycle path, as it seemed rather busy, with people and cyclists and a few twists and turns and places where cars turned across it…
A beautiful sunny summery Friday afternoon, calling people to the waterfront… The cathedral a familiar landmark, beautiful, still… The sparkling sea, the promise of summer fun ahead… April noticeably becoming much warmer in the eleven days that we have been here…
After running for three miles, we turned back for home – by the windmills…
As we ran Rich caught us up… He had carried on for five miles before turning…
Slowing as he neared us he called out… ‘I crashed’ and he showed us the skin off his arm….
The track had been clear, he had been zooming along, just one man on the path and him…
And then for some reason the man turned back and stepped in his path… In the process of trying to stop so as to not hit the guy Rich overturned his chair…!
But all the other athletes and Rich himself were more concerned about the racing chair than his grazed arm!
We sat in a juice bar afterwards enjoying green and purple and orange coloured potions… Relaxing in the fading afternoon sun.
In the bus in the way back I chatted to Steve about his recent injury and his hopes to get fit enough to be selected for Rio, and I recognise how much I enjoy being amongst my tribe… International athletes aspiring and stretching to their pinnacle…
And even though I am not aspiring to taking part in the Olympic games in Rio, I do aspire to the motto of the games….
‘Live your passion…’
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
