I discovered why canal fishing is
so interesting a few years back. Well, I kind of discovered why canal fishing
is so interesting. It is, for the same reason running is.
You see, I used to live in
Maynooth for several years and my training run would bring me along the Grand Canal
that intersects the town. I would jog along it for several kilometres in both
directions, either to Kilcock where you will find the only place in Ireland
where a railway, runs along a canal, that runs along a road, that runs along a
river (at least that’s what Dad told me) or to Leixlip. I never made it to
Leixlip, always choosing to turn in and do a loop of the wonderfully beautiful
environs of Carton House.
Along this run I would pass by
people, usually men, sitting still and fishing. They’d be there on the way out
and still be there on the way back irrespective of whether I was doing 5k or
25k. And for a long while I wondered “how on earth could you find sitting in
the one place enjoyable”. It’s not like they were also reading War and Peace or watching Netfix. And
then one day I realised that they were probably thinking the same thing about
me.
I mean, how could running from
point A to point B be enjoyable? But it is. And I realised that while someone
who has never ran (chasing a bus, looking for a loo and escaping a lion don’t
count) may understandably find it difficult to understand why someone might
enjoy running, I also realised that not understanding how something could be
enjoyable (i.e. canal bank fishing) doesn’t mean it isn’t.
One of the reasons I enjoy
running is how it can allow the mind to wander. If I run at just the right
pace, not too hard, just below what I would find as difficult, I can start
day-dreaming. This can be on anything from stuff at home to the next trip away,
the to-do-list of next week to the month-it-was. It is a nourishing mixture of
processing ideas and thoughts and forming plans and new ones. And while the
body might be slowly tiring as I run, in the right stride the mind is slowly
growing, or at least waking up.
No more is the day-dream more
welcomed than on the solo-run without company when the mind drifts away the
distance becomes so much shorter.
Unfortunately, I have never quite
got into the same mental space during a marathon.
In a marathon the emotion and
energy of the day doesn’t seem to mix with day-dreams. While the first half of
a good marathon might see me not get too bogged down on the miles and
kilometres ran or left to run, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to get into a
mental space where I’m day-dreaming about weekend city breaks or wondering what
needs to be shopped for. However, by the second half I tend to find myself
becoming more and more aware of exactly how much is left, how I am feeling, how
tough it is and how this does not feel like feckin’ canal bank fishing!
Still even if the final 5 mils
aren’t the rest of it is fun and if you don’t run yourself you’ll just have to
trust me on that, just like the fishing.
Yesterday’s training
8k slow.
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