Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I'm very thin: thinner than I've been in years and certainly thinner
than when I started this run. I need 8000 calories a day to fuel 85 kilo-
metres of running, but I'm not consuming enough. Katie has just
acquired an application for her iPhone that will monitor the number
of calories I ingest and my metabolic rate. I have to give some serious
thought to my diet—what I'm eating and in what quantities—other-
wise my body will fail me as the run wears on. I need large amounts of
protein in the form of meat and fish, and of carbohydrates provided
by rice, pasta, potatoes and bread. Along with that, for balance, I need
fruit and vegetables, sweet treats for my mind as well as for my body.
And I need to keep hydrated by drinking lots of water.
Today, as I often do while running, I was playing mind games with
myself, and my thoughts took me in a weird direction. I was thinking
back to when my hands were hurting during and after the ice, and I
transferred that thought into a scenario in which I was running on the
road and a truck zoomed past me, and its side mirror smashed into my
hand and broke it off. When I fell onto the road, another truck ran right
over the hand. I could see my hand completely flattened on the road.
It wasn't so much a daydream as a day nightmare.
I think of my kids every day. I know they are proud of me. When
this run is over, it will be wonderful to be close to them, enjoying their
school activities, revelling in their growing into adults. I'll be there for
them every minute. My heart bursts when I realise that, despite what
I must do for the next eight months, this run will end one magic day,
and then I'll be back where I belong. Meanwhile, I will contact them
via text, phone call, email or letter every day. I am so excited that they
will be with me in little more than a week.
Dillon has settled down a lot. He was unhappy when he returned
home after joining me in Canada. It was hard for him to go back to the
rules and regulations of school after the freedom he experienced on
the road with me.
I've been buoyed by a letter from a group of Australian ultrarun-
ners who were preparing for a 100-kilometre race and felt the need to
contact me and say that they were thinking of me. They said I must be
the greatest ultrarunner our country has produced. Am I? There have
been some beauties. I don't think I'm in their league. Still, kind words
from peers mean a lot.
Today, as I ran through neat and pristine farmland, past red
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