THAILAND POWER OF TEN UPDATE – 1 DEC
When the dust has settled.
It has been go, go, go every day, up early and hitting the road, running the 50 Km per day- suddenly 20 days later and the 1000 km the run ends at Cave lodge.
Fortunately it was only a 4 day wait and the next challenge was there, The Thailand Ultra, 100 km of hell. That has also now come to an end.
It’s finally all over; slowly the mist begins to roll in. It’s a different mist that quietly begins to consume one. Often after a massive event, you sit there mentally and physically exhausted, but there is this a little space that just craves for more, but that’s it its finished – it’s done. It is time to return to the reality of normal life. But there is this massive void that is beginning to open – slowly it grows as this weird feeling starts to spread, it begins to place weight on the mind, what is it – we all experience it at some stage. On one side there is the longing to get home, but on the other is the question – “What now?” how am I going to feed this internal craving, keep on this high –
Crash down you go into this quiet sorry state of post event blues.
Over the years I learnt to deal with this strange feeling after every event. It’s a quiet experience that gives you no sadness, nor brings happiness, it holds you in limbo. If you let it get the better of you, you tend to sit there and feel sorry for yourself – the feeling of who cares about me? Who knows what I have been through? Don’t let this happen, you have to fight it. Instead, use it to drive you, feed off this little dark vortex of negativity, spin it around and be thankful and appreciative for what you have just experienced and the life enhancing lessons that you have been offered. Cherish the interactions with special people that have enriched your life along the road that you have just travelled.
The last 2 days its hit both Andy and I, but there is only one way to shake this.
So this morning it was up at 5 and we hit Table Mountain. We dragged out tired bodies up and over Newlands ravine, around the contour path and back to the Newlands forest station. All the cravings in our bodies were fed; the further we ran the bigger the smile got. It’s incredible what a good dose of fresh air, exercise and a bit of sunshine can bring one.
As I reflect on this, all the positive experiences and interactions that this journey has afforded me. I long to just get up and keep running, but that would be the worst thing to do. I need to deal with what I have been through, reflect, absorb and fully reintegrate into normal life. Then, only then, can I get up and try again.
It’s a lot like daily life, deal with the issue, don’t run from it.