I signed up for an ultramarathon while I was in Scotland.
Technically, it just qualifies. It’s only about 5 miles longer than a marathon (26.2 miles).
By definition, anything beyond marathon distance counts as an ultramarathon — even if just barely.
Some ultras stretch into the hundreds of miles. There are even a couple over 1,000 miles.
But that’s not the point.
If I finish it, I get to say for the rest of my life: I’m an ultramarathon runner.
Minimum required distance, maximum reputational gain. Status. Accolades. Reverence. YES…
So why am I really doing it? Partly because I’m easily persuaded. Partly because living so much of life in the mind doesn’t feel normal — and I need to move my body. Plus I once saw a psychic and she told me I needed to run more… no joke. If a psychic tells you to run, who am I to argue with the spirit realm? Better to overdo it than under do it.
Modern life pulls us into stillness. Staring at screens. Thinking, planning, figuring out endlessly. But our ancestors moved. We were designed to move. To be in our bodies. To feel more, think less.
It’s hard in a society moulded around thinking and intellect. But reconnecting to our physical selves — our sensations, our breath, our limits — can be powerful. How? Movement. Mindful movement. Notice each step. The muscles that fire. The tension in the body. The rhythm of the breath— is it shallow? Deep? Effortless? Let the tension guide your pace. It might hurt for a while but eventually there’s a release and we find flow. For me, mindful movement helps to find that place of ease. It takes time but it’s a healing space to enter.
We weren’t designed to be predominantly thinking beings. Thinking, rationalising, intellectualising — they’re useful, but they’re just one part of being alive. Feeling, experiencing, imagining, creating — a different richness. One that has absorbs me more and more.
Yoga has been my usual embodied practice— but it’s been more of struggle to get on the mat lately. So I’ve taken my movement outside. It seems more fitting to move in the sun and nature. Yesterday, I ran 12km in the hills for the first time in a very long time. But the ego runs strong in me still and I overdid it. Today, I’m tired. Luckily, I get a lie in.
In the morning- I have a doctor’s appointment. They found a mass in my chest- all tests are reassuring- but they’re monitoring it. I emailed work to say I couldn’t make the morning session. But I had a feeling no one read it. A recurring frustration — being ignored.
I call up Andy, the service manager.
“Did you cancel my clinic?”
“No.”
Of course not. “Well you better do so.”
I go in after my doctors appointment. I’m drained, irritable, foggy. Not a great day for patience. Or patients. I go on autopilot until I get home. I was meant to come home and do a load of work in the evening but tonight’s not a creative night.
I put on Untouchable — a French film. Hilarious and life-affirming.
Just what I needed: Stillness and screen-staring.
Mindful Medic 