The trails are calling...

The year 2007 has come and gone and there are no tales of travel, adventure or athletic achievements to recount. This past year, my energies were spent primarily on work, school and taming my overexcited puppy to be more vigilant of his owner and oncoming mountain bikes during our trail runs. I also spent the first part of the year rehabbing a right knee injury back to health to be fit enough to run a few races in North Vancouver’s great trails (Squamish Thunder, Five Peaks Seymour Race, Iron Lung and Hallow’s Eve), however, the longer distances still remained out of reach. The last marathon I ran was in Boston in April 2006.

This year, there is no urge to set any road marathon aspirations but instead to explore the amazing trails in the North Shore Mountains. There is no better way to do this than by signing up for Knee Knacker. After a year of tender footed training runs and single leg squats, I think I am ready to step it up. Running the trails means that I can run with my dog and therefore I am absolved of any guilt I would face with leaving Otis behind for paved runs that make doggy paws go raw. The Knee Knacker race has always been something I have wanted to complete and with an impending move outside of BC in the next year, there is no time like the present. So, I’ve paid my money - the lottery will seal my fate.

I had signed up for Knee Knacker on one other occasion (in 2004) and I discovered that a daily Ashtanga yoga practice and long trail runs did not serve my knees all that well. I had to opt out of starting the race, scale back on my running and continue with my daily yoga practice. This was part of a yoga teacher training course that I had been studying for over the least year. I spent the last 5 weeks of this year long course in Thailand during which time, I was advised not to run at all. I wholeheartedly respected the advice but that was the longest time that I have gone without running. For me, running is part of my yoga practice.

I practice yoga almost daily even if it is only to do a few sun salutations. The second of Pantajali’s yoga sutras is “yogah cittavrtti norodhah.” Essentially, this means that yoga is about stopping the fluctuations of the mind. Of course, this is a simple translation for something that is much more complex but in this sense, running is my yoga – it quiets my mind and connects me with this greater world like nothing else. Perhaps my asana practice will one day become like running for me but for now, I choose to do both. I run and I do asana – both of these practices remind me of who I truly am.

This blog will be an account of my 2008 running adventures and aspirations with a few associated ramblings of yoga practice, the yoga of running and my perspectives on life as I balance work, grad school and all the other responsibilities of life.