A question about push ups, & the joys of running.

 

Letters from the Falkland Islands

 

Saturday 12^th December. 09.47.

 

I was asked a question by one of my brothers, Rory. “How are the push ups going?” The push ups went pretty well on day one, but since then my arms have been aching so much that I haven’t done a single one. The same can be said for sit ups, squat jumps, and burpees. Ha. It’s amazing how quickly my ankle injury from a few weeks ago suddenly seemed to recover. So now I spend my outdoor exercise time trying to run 5km on a 30-meter grass ‘track’. Running round in very small circles, changing direction after every five minutes or so to prevent dizziness setting in. It’s oddly thrilling, though. Maybe it’s the simple wonder of being outside, a change of scenery to inside the hotel room. It’s also the pure joy of running, of running for running’s sake alone. It certainly has meditative qualities, I find myself getting lost in the simple movements, and noticing each and every slight undulation of the earth. I’ll take in the smells of the nearby sea, feel the sunshine and the breeze upon my skin.

I never hold that level of focus for the entire time, though. A conversation will start up with someone from one of the hotel windows. Or the game of ‘trying to guess the entire contents of the Historic Dockyard Museum’ will start up again with my morning exercise partner, Rob. We can see this museum from the sheep pen, and it’s amazing how much you start to wonder about all the things that you can see but are just out of reach. It’s that human instinct to discover and explore; we are always asking questions of the things we do not know; we always want to know more. Our guesses at first were perhaps not the most imaginative, we didn’t get much further than really old anchors and matchstick ships. But we’ve still got a long way to go in quarantine, so it’s probably pretty good that we didn’t peak too soon.