We ran about 6 and a half miles today (Hope to include a picture rather than link this time) at least that is the horizontal distance, I think we went much further because there are sooooo many hills. It is hugely gruelling to climb hill after hill, yet the reward is in the scenery and knowing that it does you good! For a couple of miles along the coast there was actually not even a path, more a series of rocks to scramble over. It is not just the hills that seem to put the cyclists off, here the terrain put us off too, too hard and too dangerous to try to run here. We actually saw many more walkers than runners (or cyclists!), festooned with back packs, waterproofs, solid walking boots and hiking staff in each hand.
One of the issues I am wrestling with is that which is innate and that which is learned, or practiced. Jungian typology (On which Isobel Myers and Kathryn Briggs did their MBTI work) assumes at its heart that our 'type' is innate, born as part of us, like the colour of our eyes or make up of our DNA. Much of the reading I have been doing about running and the basis of my sabbatical is based on the idea that when a thing is practiced enough, in a disciplined way that the impossible becomes possible. Much of my thinking over these coming months will aim to consider this apparent dichotomy.
I reckon that there are very few cyclists in St Ives because the terrain makes cycling very difficult, I have never been to York but people tell me it is flat, I am guessing there are more cyclists in York, pro rata, than in St Ives. I also reckon that the people in St Ives have the same basic physicality as the people in York, the same possibilities when it comes to being a cyclist, it is the context that is different. Even the physical geography we inhabit, let alone, diet, mindset, education, encouragement can cause us to aim for something or hold us back from trying.
I have started reading Mary Webb's 'Precious Bane' - Prue Sarn is born with a physical disability, a 'hare lip', yet this limiting factor is also her 'precious bane' for it causes her to live life differently, in the attic where the harvest is gathered she seeks solace of what she describes as the 'the glory... from the other side of silence' and that her blessedness comes from being cursed (society's understanding).
I am sure that the answer to my question 'innate or learned' will not rely on a dichotomy in its unravelling, John Wesley termed the idea of 'Christian perfection' not as an objective but as a process, something to garner all that we are, in all its imperfections and point it in a direction that was worthy of travel. So by bicycle, hiking, running or jogging, whichever befits the context, to set ones face towards something and try your best.
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