On September 5th 2020, I ran the Classic Quarter 44 mile ultramarathon from Lizard Point to Land’s End, which is the most Southerly tip of England to the most Westerly. The race is organised by Endurancelife and includes around 5500ft / 1600m of ascent. It was my first race of 2020.
I felt relatively confident going into the race. Lockdown had meant a very good training block, although I may have peaked a month too early and then started getting reoccurring knee and ankle issues.
In Part 1 I shared my preparation for my 100km fundraising run, with a focus on the heat, as this race was due to take place in the longest heatwave the UK has seen in 5 years 🔥
This is my race report of how it went on the day I ran the Cotswold Way Challenge 2018.
Royal Crescent, Bath
I woke up at 5am and immediately peeked out the window. Thank the gods, it was overcast. It was actually quite cool out, about 13°C.
Because we care, we choose to practice.
We yearn for peace, for genuine happiness. And so we come to the cushion and engage with the crux of our predicament: what does it mean to be here?
The feeling of being here is the gateway to all life’s vicissitudes, from the ever-shifting sensory landscape around us to our personal thoughts and emotions. It all arises right here.
We often neglect the fullness of presence in favour of a reliance on thought. But thought is only one small part of being here, and it tends to ride on the back of a lot of unconscious emotional conditioning that we pick up through parents, culture and complete accident.
On Sunday night I got back from a three week work retreat at the stunning Gaia House in Devon.
A month or so back I’d been looking for a job, and also wanting to go on retreat, so I decided that I could wallop two birds with one stone, whilst also lending a helping hand at a world-renowned retreat centre.
According to the Progress of Insight map which I’d found very useful since I started meditating, I’d been lurking in the equanimity phase of my first insight cycle since my first retreat in January. I’d experienced formations, tasted the formless realms, but now just seemed to be going round in circles. To make matters slightly more uncomfortable I’d also slipped back in the dukkha nanas a few times. Not fun, and a powerful incentive to go on retreat.
I’ve been back from Dhamma Dipa for two days now. Here is a report of how it worked out for me, for those interested.
The first 3 days were hell, and I don’t use the term lightly. Physical pain, mental judgements and overwhelming emotional attachments all quickly came to the surface thanks to prolonged meditation and the Noble Silence. The whole retreat experience is set-up so as to facilitate this kind of coming-to-terms: there’s no-one to speak to, nothing to distract yourself with. You just sit there in your own self-created misery, until you learn how to understand and work with it. All those fears, aversions, cravings, judgements, negativities are out in the open, and you can do little but sit back and watch them push and pull you around.