Running Repairs

Highbury, Saturday 8th April 1978 (maybe you remember it?). Ipswich Town are playing West Brom in the semi-final of the FA Cup and after 8 minutes Brian Talbot scores the first goal of what will be a 3-1 victory for the Town. Unfortunately there is a clash of heads as he heads the ball into the net. Talbot has to go off to have stitches but John Wile of West Brom receives an epic bandage and plays on.

I think there would be much more concern about a head injury these days but back then a few running repairs were sufficient for Wile to continue.

Some things we can fix on the hoof. I have a small first aid kit (with survival blanket) in my backpack for a very long run and often a knee support that doubles as a cushion for the emergency phone. To be honest there is little I could actually do in most emergencies. The best thing as always is “take care of your feet”.

I am not a trained first aider but there is a very real sense in which running repairs us. It restores our relation to ourselves and the world around us. First of all it is perfectly possible to run with a mind-set of enjoyment and thanksgiving. Just consider how wonderful and mysterious is the gift of life, the sensation of movement, our heart beating, feet springing off the ground, the wind (and the rain) and then add all those people who make us who we are. Every sensation can be welcomed, even the pain in our legs, as an affirmation of life, something to interrogate and contemplate. And if our enjoyment is wearing thin there is acceptance which is realism about limitation but also about possibility. Acceptance does not have to be downbeat. Acceptance can free us from our anxieties.

This is a very prayerful attitude.  The poetry of John of the Cross, the famous Spanish mystic, flickered into life in the darkest of places – he wrote of the love of God even in the harshest of prisons. Reconnecting with the love of God transforms everything.

Running repairs us when we are aware of our body moving and that we are at one with the world thinking of everything and thinking of nothing.

So do you have to be good at running to run a long distance? It depends what you mean by good. There are plenty of people who are much faster than I am. There are plenty of people who run really gracefully whereas I am more like a collapsing deckchair. There are many who can run much further than I can.

I do know however that I am the best of those born in a certain house in a certain village on a certain day in 1966. And even then I am not in competition with myself because every run is different.

You can run or you can have some other interest or passion. The most important thing is to relish the journey!

— The Rev’d Philip Davison