April 7, 2024

Everyone is leaving.

Booo.

Winter must officially be over then.

Actually only three people are leaving. But three important people to me.

One is returning to Spain. The other two begin their long adventure cycling from Chamonix to Kathmandu. You can join me in following their adventures here. All parties will be missed, but I’m sure some will be back faster than others. It’s hard to stay away from me for too long.

Still, winter is over, and Spring is the season of rebirth and renewal. So I will birth some new friendships out of the ashes of the old ones. And with new friendships come new challenges.

Specifically, the challenge of running a 51km trail run. The Trails des Aguilles Rouges. Or, TAR, to the locals.

But, after two different people asked me to join, I just had to say, no, that doesn’t sound fun.

And, just like that time 15 years ago when someone asked me to run a half-marathon, and I said, no, that doesn’t sound fun, eventually the cogs in my brain got to moving and wondering “but…what if you actually could do it? Maybe it’s possible.”

When I was about 20, and a friend asked about the half marathon, I was not a runner. I was a breakdancer, a yogi, a gym-goer, a climber, but not a runner. Running was something I had been forced to do in school that gave me no pleasure at all.

Apparently I’m a sucker for a challenge. For seeing what my body is capable of. It turned out it was totally capable of running 21km. It even did it a few times.

So, now, I’ve signed up for the TAR to see if it’s capable of running 51km. Regular readers of this blog might remember I ran 42km last summer, and be thinking, well, that’s not much more. Easy easy lemon squeezy.

But here come the excuses.

You see, that was about as flat as a marathon can be. Pancake level flat. For 42,000m of sideways, I did 229m of up.

For the TAR, I have to do 3,600m of up.

I don’t know if you’ve tried going up lately, but up is hard, and that’s a lot of up. 15.72 times more up in fact. I haven’t kept track of all my lifetime ups, but in the last few years the most up I’ve completed is 1800m. So, just double the most I’ve ever travelled upwards, and whack on many more sideways kms than I’ve ever done too, and there you have it. The TAR.

Hooray?

The views should be nice though. If it’s not hail-storming like it apparently sometimes does at that time of year.

So, thanks to those two stupid friends, and one stupid me, I now have my exercise regime for about the next 6 months planned out. And, yep, you guessed it, there’s a lot of running. My main goal is not to break myself in the process, and instead become the fittest, leanest, most high-energy-snack-consuming version of myself I’ve ever been. I’ll probably have to give myself a pay increase just to cover all the extra food.