When I ran the Toronto Scotiabank half in the fall, I fell in love with the sounds of a big race. It was incredible the noise of thousands of feet pounding against the city streets. When the race started it was chaos; everyone was yelling and people cheering from the sidelines. Then around the 3 km mark we turned onto Bloor St, both sides of the streets were lined with war time buildings, and everyone got suddenly quiet. It was as if all at the same time, everyone realized what they had got themselves into and thought ” I better bare down and concentrate”. The sound of the feet all hitting the pavement in rhythm was mind-blowing. It was so loud that I couldn’t even hear my own foot steps to breath properly. At this moment I made the decision to really take in the sights and sounds of my runs. To listen to nature and my body making contact with the ground. To embrace the beautiful surroundings that my little town has to offer…
A lot of runners believe that you should listen to your body; breathing air in and out, your feet hitting the ground. I am reading a book called “Running with the mind of meditation by Sakyong Mipham”. It really touches on the powers of meditation and how running can be a part of your spiritual body. It really made me think about taking time to slow down, enjoy life and try to take time to just relax. I have always felt guilty for having “me time”, felt lazy and like I am wasting an opportunity to accomplish something useful. I’m tying to change this mentality and realize the importance of meditation and relaxation. Running has given me the ability to do this, because I feel as if I deserve some down time because I am putting so many hours in running.
This being said, Megan bought me some Bose ear buds that I absolutely love.
She surprised me with them the night before the race in Toronto. She is so thoughtful like that and it means the world to me that she supports me so much in my life endeavours. So with these new ear buds, I will be listening to music on some runs because its nice to just zone out on a tough runs and get lost in the music. But for the most part, Nature will be my music.
Wow, I got deep in that post!
Keep on moving,
JA
RunCanadaRun 