My name is Julia Chi…
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 have lived from a belief that all that is required is that I know myself, and that I am true to myself, and seek to become the master of my body and my mind… That from this place I allow my true nature to shine and reflect in my creative endeavours and within my relationships.
An ongoing journey…!
I knew from when I was young that all I needed to do was to ‘run free’. To let the running take me where it wanted to. To stay in the step. To be in the moment and so to experience running as a meditation on the move.
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.
ByJulia Chi
Spa days and laundrette days seem to go together for me; lots of sloshing and cleaning and whirling about… I am just back from the ‘lavandaria’, having really enjoyed the experience, slightly reminding me of university days… Sitting and watching clothes whirl about can be very relaxing, a washing machine meditation! Making every single thing…
ByJulia Chi
Famara beach with the tide far out and the sun glistening – a place of pure magic. I felt my reflection… In the sand, the sea, me merging in the run with the sun and becoming one, more free in each step that I ran. A woman stripped off her clothes and walked naked into…
ByJulia Chi
Anadi and I arrived in Teguise for breakfast, a beautiful white light picturesque town… I particularly love the shops there, full of bright vibrant clothes; they call to me and I feel I could buy them all.. The fun of colour – the explosion in a paint factory energy within me, means that even passing…
ByJulia Chi
Now that I can speak enough Spanish to have conversations, albeit basic ones… I have discovered there are many people here who like to go barefoot… The lady in the supermarket states that she would like to come to work with her feet bare… The man in the restaurant tells me that when he is…
ByJulia Chi
I am sitting with honey smeared all over the soles of my feet! They are having a special intensive treatment afternoon… First they were scrubbed clean, then I massaged them with Tea Tree oil, put a layer of Savlon over the top of that and then let it all soak in and do its magic…
ByJulia Chi
My feet are tingling; they have been run upon and spa ed and reflexologied… They have had a lot of activity and attention and now they are tingling… My lovely feet; I love them so much. I know I have said this before but it is like they are two little separate entities who reside…
ByJulia Chi
I have had a lovely day… It started with my live broadcast about my preparations to run Barefoot Across Spain which I loved so much… To be with people even though we are all miles apart is just such a magic thing! It reminds me that we are all connected all of the time; we…
ByJulia Chi
I raced back from running round and round the track to my Spanish lesson; arriving glowing and un-showered… The joys of Skype that allow for us to be together with another in a way I wouldn’t be if I were in her classroom! And then I was on fire in my lesson… ‘I don’t recognise…
ByJulia Chi
I was wandering along just now, when a Spanish man asked me… ‘Why no shoes…’? I realised I didn’t really have much of an answer… ‘Because I like it, because my feet like it…’ Perhaps they are a lot of an answer on reflection… Doing what we like, and our body likes… Ahh but what…
ByJulia Chi
As I glance around my little apartment here in Club la Santa, it looks like I’ve lived here for ages, and that I am a single messy female! The entire of me is scattered about the flat… I have always had a tendency when alone to splash myself all about; it is a habit that…
ByJulia Chi
The view from my window changes almost daily at the moment… From a seascape in Dorset, to the fields of Provence – to a Sunday run on the South Downs as if I had never left – and now I am looking out over the north terminal at Gatwick airport… Changing vistas, blue skies to…
ByJulia Chi
Last night we were honoured to be guests at the ‘gin off’, because we don’t make gin…! This is an annual ‘event’ where my old friends – who I have run many many miles with on the South Downs – make sloe gin from the sloe berries that grow wild on the South Downs… In…
