Wednesday 13 July 2011

Running for running's sake.

This week has got me thinking about running for running's sake.  Let me explain.

These days there are a lot of people out there running for something, a charity, a family member, a cause, whatever.  Now let me say this is AWESOME!  I have done it many times before and I have many good friends that have (See Andy Bowen http://www.33marathons.com/ ) done it and are going to do it in the future (heck, I will be too, next week in fact!)  But in saying this, sometimes we get caught up in what we are 'doing' and forget about the simple, pure, pleasure of putting one foot in front of the other.

As most of you know, I have big dreams and ambitions of what I want to achieve in my life.  Not for any other reason than to get the most out of the short time I have on earth and live it up!  I am constantly thinking of new adventures I can have and crazy things I can do.  This week our family have been looking at going over to do the Northburn 100 in New Zealand in March.  I am super keen and looking at doing the 100miler.

This then got me thinking about just plain old running.  Now I know that time, work, money, family etc can be a factor when doing certain things, but this week I have been thinking about how in the future, near or far I dont know, I would like to 'travel' by foot.  By this I mean, if Tegs, Pria and I go somewhere, I would love to 'travel' back by foot.  For example, if we go to Brisbane, I would love to pack some running gear, food, the credit card, my phone and run home.  Run as far as I want, find somewhere to camp for the night (or keep running) and just make my way home.  The possibilities are endless, where ever we went, if the above mentioned factors worked out I could 'travel' back home from anywhere!

I have to say at times I am guilty of it too, but I think in this day and age, we get so bogged down and caught up in 'living' that we forget about REALLY LIVING!  We should be focused on the things that used to matter, adventure, spirit, heart, faith, love, fear of the unknown, a little bit of healthy crazy!  Instead these days we seem to be more concerned about our next facebook status update, how much money we earn, how much 'stuff' we have and how much TV we can watch in one day!  The really important things!  HA! Yeah right!

So, I move forward, striving to keep my heart and mind on the important things in life!  A new adventure can be just around the corner if you want it to be!  Don't be scared to dream, look up instead of down, smile instead of frown, believe instead of doubt and for goodness sake GO FOR A RUN!!!  Never say never, if you want to do something, forks to everyone who says you cant...YOU CAN!

My passing word...set a goal this week guys!  Be it big or small, set one!  Make a difference in your life and you never know, you might even be a positive influence on those around you!  RUN ON friends!

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Update - I dropped some good weight last week, now down to 87.1kg as of last Friday.

For those friends who are local, I am doing the Relay for Life (I told you I still will be doing fundraisers!) on the 23rd and 24th of this Month.  It starts at 3pm I believe at Bundy Showgrounds.  As I did last year, I will be aiming to move for the entire time 18hours!!!  I aim to do 120km plus...well see how we go!  If any of you would like to come out and cheer our team and others on, at any time of the day or night, it would be super!  Also, if any of you would like to donate to the cause, the Cancer Council, please contact me direct so it can go through our team.  THANKS!

4 comments:

  1. I'm totally with you on this. No disrespect to all the awesome people who raise large amounts for charity but implicit in that question "What cause are you running for?" is the idea running has to be FOR something. And if you are not running FOR something often the response is a little dismissive, as if you are being self-indulgent. Running is a glorious end in itself.

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  2. Great stuff Mat .. inspiring and thought provoking =D
    I run because I love it ... am addicted to the emotional and physical feeling I get from it, and I know that I am living a quality life, no matter how long I am on this earth for. Best of all, I get to meet and share this love with many like-minded people .. I think that's why you all just feel like one big extended family =D

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  3. You've hit the nail on the head Mat. It doesn't matter your motive for running, as long as it's for yourself somewhere down the line. I was feeling down this morning, so I went for a barefoot sand run; feet on the earth, grounding, feeling the sand twixt my toes. Didn't take long and I was on top of the world, feeling great. The other thing I've noticed is that it doesn't matter how fast you are (or slow in my case) - you are a runner, in a community of runners. Thank Goodness for all of us! Thanks to you Mat, for refocussing me on what I'm doing.

    Dean (Dusty Boots)

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  4. Thank you all for your lovley comments! I agree 100%! And yeah, as Jaci says, it really does feel like one big family! Run on friends!

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