Then, after about 20 miles, wracked with total body fatigue, unsteadiness and possible light-headedness, you hit an invisible wall, an apparently insurmountable physiological barrier which stops you in your tracks.
This sounds familiar to me and seems to be happening around the same time. 20 miles is pretty much 75% of the way there. I am in month 29 of, hopefully, about 39, so similarly 75% of the way there. I think the only thing that can get me through is to grit my teeth and get on with it. It is all about getting over the finish line for a while. Making lists, crossing things off, seeing tiny achievements within the bigger, as yet almost incomprehensible, picture. The personal bests have gone out of the window, good enough will do. Maybe through this the rhythm will return to the running and the sight of the finish line will dredge up some better spirits. On the other hand, with the PhD, the sight of the 39 month finish line seems to be coming a bit too quickly, almost as if I am trying to do a marathon on a treadmill and someone has ramped up the speed button and I can't quite keep up! Hey ho...
A bit of passer-by encouragement probably helps and I have to say it was nice to receive this recently from Iain Sinclair.
Dear Alison -
Thank you for letting me know something about your various assaults on the culture. The use of the Hackney Gazette headlines was especially inspiring: I've been collecting them for years. I think they are a great artform. And your use of them is on the money. The weight and range of activity, seen and unseen, around the branded emptiness of the Grand Olympic Project, confirms me in my conceit of this area having a perverse and unquenched spirit.
with my best wishes,
Iain Sinclair
So, I must take heart and get back on the road to oblivion, I mean enlightenment...
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