My World in Words

“So in true me style I turned it into a mental game. I imagined myself as a water droplet flowing down the trail, while keeping my breathing at a 4 steps in/4 steps out rhythm. I kept this mindful breathing going for the next 13km, happy to find myself still passing people on the downhill as I ‘flowed’ along. It seemed to be working, although my breathing sounded ragged I could control it and as long as I could control it I felt safe to continue. I told myself I would just continue this until the finish line to be safe…. Then, I saw the 3km to go marker.”

The view that I woke up to each morning out of my massive bedroom window was breath taking, and spending most mornings eating breakfast on the balcony of my little apartment became my time to just sit and reflect on anything and everything. Different thoughts always run through my head when enjoying mountain air, as the peace that comes from the view and the slow pace of true mountain life seeps in. The only downside of mountain life, especially in Switzerland, is the crazy price of everything. Good luck buying a simple meal out for less that $50 AUD, and $9 AUD for 500g of carrots anyone? Still, the price was worth it for the location and one of the races of my dreams.

There wasn’t much else to my time in Annecy besides sleep, enjoying the sunshine and heat, and trying to keep myself busy enough to not feel too lonely. It felt a bit like I was in limbo, the athlete in me not wanting to exhaust myself but the adventurer in me really wanting to explore the surroundings.

For me, Dolomyths Run was all about pushing my limits and running a race I was proud of. After the race I had for Marathon Du Mont Blanc, I had my mind set on forgetting all kinds of race plan, going hard from the start, and just seeing where that got me. The blessing of the struggles I had experienced so far on the trip was that this time around, I really was able to forget about everyone around me and what anyone else would think. I was there to give my best, no matter what that looked like, and if I crossed the line knowing I had done that then I really didn’t care about anything else.

I started to find my usual self again, the self that wasn’t overwhelmed by the challenges of the race but excited by them. The me that would push hard in my runs and sessions out of determination, not fear. The me that still has a little voice telling me I’m not good enough, but refuses to listen and has a much bigger voice fighting back.

I turned the rest of the race into a game. As with any pain, the less you mentally focus on it the less it screams, so I focused on the person in front of me and would try to challenge myself to catch them in a certain number of minutes. There were no females around, I hadn’t been passed by or seen anyone in around 2 hours by this stage, but there were men near me that became my targets.

‘it was not the perfect start to the trip of my dreams; where training, travel and my own company felt brilliant, free, and powerful. But it was perhaps the start to the trip I needed because I got a chance to fall, to pick myself back up again, and to push on in a stressful and brand new environment around no one that knew me, my history, or what was going on.

I had two major aims for the trip: to see where I currently sit in the world scheme of the distances I currently race; and learn about the European mountain terrain/the training required to compete on that terrain.