Pennine Way Dreams

It began with an idea.
A dream so big I had to tell myself a lie.
A lie that lay hidden in plain sight.

Dormant. Then devastating.

I told myself that to finish was enough.
That I would accept this as an outcome  to satisfy my search for new horizons.
I would set off for the record, try for three days or finish.

And I believed.

I trained to finish.
I trained to run 268 miles.
Valley and Dale. Slabs and Steps. Old and New.

I trained. And trained. To finish.

I gathered a strong team.
Everyone together towards the goals.
Tracked, trained and delivered to Edale for the start.

I felt good.

I ran as if it was a dream.
I floated, skipped and climbed.
My racing pace beating relentlessly against my training built to finish.

The penny dropped.The lie laid bare.

This was not my dreamtime, this was not my place to pace myself against the light of yesterday.
Not today.
This was a shadow of my dream.

I had run myself into the ground to chase it.

But what a day.
If the glory is in the doing rather than the having done I can give no better day to such a cause.
Of friends. Of smiles and laughs. Of cheer and goodwill.

Cresting waves as though invincible, climbing hills as though the day would never end. Together.

This dream is mine. And it is ours.
The fires lit by burning eyes and hearts and minds burn on.
The lie laid bare by burning examination.

This truth is no longer hidden in plain sight.

A dream to scare, inspire, delight.
A dream to challenge, change, transform.
A dream to run.

A dream to run.

To chase and peak and trough at pace and yes to finish.
But to finish knowing I have run the best of me.
Knowing that in the journey I have matched the ending with the process.

A dream.