Catching Up

  A friend from Austin emailed me the other day.  It was great to hear from her.  We met before I left but, unfortunately  didn't have the time to hang out more.  Writing her back was a great way to spend the evening thinking about the last couple of months, the seasons, and life back in Austin.  I've included some of the letter.  Enjoy.   

"Hey! Thanks for emailing me.  Its refreshing and a nice surprise to hear from you.  Things have been going here in NZ.  it's early summer with highs of about 82 and lows of 50.  We get the occasional windy and rainy days but today is beautiful.  I look out my window now and the greens of the hills pop out, the beach is filled with tourists and people on holiday, and the gardens along my street are filled with purples and yellows.  The bees here are huge too! they fill the flowers of my courgettes and look like black and yellow stripped cotton balls.  Our neighbor's apples fall from their tree and roll down our drive way and my other neighbor's plum tree is ready to be picked.  I make sure I pass with empty pockets and take some of the load off their hands.  The first bite of the plum tastes like koolaid then you get a taste of skin and its only a little bitter.  Fruit literally rolls to our door.  Apricots, nectarines, peaches, apples, and tomatoes take up most of the space at weekend market and I have no problem going there on an empty stomach and stuffing my face with the sugar.  

Over the holiday break, me and some friends went camping to the Abel Tasman National Park.  We set up in a section called Totaranui.  You come across names like that all over the south island.  Streets like Maitai Valley Rd and Tahunanui remind you of the Maori culture that Kiwis love to brag about.  On our way to the camping site we passed a place called Takaka, but sounds like 'tarkaka' in the Kiwi accent.  Its a small little town on a mountain where they filmed most of the cave scenes from Lord of the Rings.  Totaranui is a beautiful place.  Its in the Golden Bay named for the golden sands of the beaches.  Water is cold and blue like it just came off a glacier but its nice to cool off after running around on the trails that trace the coast.  Even though it's summer, it can still get cold in the evenings and at dawn.  The last night we were there a storm rolled in and we got some bad wind and rain.  But it was worth it. 

Winter time in Austin was always my favorite.  Cold enough to wear a coat, drink hot chocolate, and be happy its not summer.  And its just the right length.  Just when you're getting tired of it, it seems like spring has arrived and the trail smells like the blooming jasmine, especially between the 3rd and 3 3/4 mile markers"

  

Life in Nelson

Nige and I got the chance to have dinner with my coach, Greg, his wife Debra, and his two sons, Jarrod and Jeff.  It was a ton of fun.  Debra went all out and made an incredible dinner for us.  We had a leg of pork, American sweet potatoes, yams (very different than the yams in the US), veggies, bread pudding, and for dessert, pavlova.  Pavlova is a traditional Kiwi dessert mostly made up of meringue in cake form.  She split it in half and layered it with whipped creme then covered it in fresh kiwis and strawberries.  It was decadent and delicious.  Nige brought a great bottle of sauvignon blanc from a vineyard in Richmond, about 15 minutes from Nelson.  We went back and forth swapping running stories, Greg almost dying from a race in Austin, Debra running with a bloody nose, black eyes, and broken ribs.  It was intense!  We all laughed when Greg told us about the three people standing over him on the track as he passed out from exhaustion; the first a trainer asking “how many fingers,” the second a reporter, and the last his coach with a big middle finger in his face.

Life in Nelson has been great.  The weather has started to get warmer, sunnier, and with fewer showers.  I’ve done a lot of exploring in the trails that wind their way south away from the ocean.  Hundreds of miles of track overlap and crisscross over never ending temperate forest.  Rocks, pine needles, and soggy bog smear your legs and get stuck in your shoes.    Everything is lush, green, and wet.  I start some days up the trail and accept that I’ll probably get lost for awhile.  It’s a good way to start the day.  You feel a lot of emotions when you’re running on the tracks.   You can feel alone one minute then come across a biking family the next, Mom and Dad waiting for their little girl, in pink bike and helmet, followed by her older brother.  It’s a testament to how much the Kiwis love the outdoors.   

It can also be scary.  You stop dead in your tracks, “what was that”?  Then you remember there aren't any bears or cougars in New Zealand.  No reason to be paranoid.  The longer trails can be disheartening, a small light at the end of the tunnel.  But you eventually make it and realize how much you love seeing a parking lot, a sure sign of civilization.  Running up and down hills and mountains, while may be Sisyphean, is a pleasant experience and a chance for self reflection.  A friend once told me about the extremes of emotion he sometimes feels out on a hard run, “at the start you feel like crap and hate everything around you, but by the end you’re cruising along, smooth and effortless, feeling on top of the world. ” I like that.  It wouldn't be fun without the shitty parts.  No ‘ups’ without ‘downs’.     

As I increase my mileage and put in longer runs, I’m spending more time alone on the trails.  I’m learning it’s good to know how to be alone and am learning to be OK without constant entertainment.  You can learn a lot about yourself.  Maybe it’s a phase of independence I’m going through.  Don’t get me wrong, I like having people around and I've always touted the benefits of group running.  I get to experience that on some of my harder workouts with Greg’s training group.  I prefer it that way, longer runs by myself and intense runs with a group.  People give you energy, and running in a group, or even with one other person, can make it easy to cruise along and make hours turn into minutes.  The group dynamic is amazing.  You give energy, and it’s returned.  The pack all moves in one direction, feeding off each other, queuing off each other’s footsteps, breathing, talking, snot rocketing.  It’s like a pack of geese, or maybe wolves.  Yeah, wolves are much more masculine.

Tomorrow we have a tempo run, or a threshold run.  It means fast but comfortable running.  Or running at a pace you can sustain for an hour, at the threshold between your aerobic and anaerobic limits.  We’re running kinda fast for a kinda long period of time.  Know what I mean?  Anyway, so far I've spent my time here in Nelson exploring and getting lost.  It’s been great!  Sorry for not posting pictures, camera issues.   Cheers.

What I’ve been reading lately:  Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

A view from down the street

Getting Lost

Nelson is turning out to be a place with beautiful views, a cool climate, soft tracks (as Kiwis call trails), and an atmosphere that's cold and damp but with tons of sunshine.  I've been running a large portion of my runs by myself within the hills and mountains that surround Nelson.  I gladly get lost, letting the trail carry me over pine needles and through densely covered forest. I pass sheep and cows who don't seem to mind you running by, and eventually end up back to the flat.  But today I joined my flat mate Nige to Rabbit Island and watched him race and WIN the third race of the Nelson duathlon series (2.5k run, 40k bike, and another 2.5k run).  Rabbit Island is park with tons of trails and places to swim, bike, and run.  There's also picnic areas and fire pitts for cook outs.  It's place I look forward to spending more time at.  Before his race, I got a chance to get lost, run, and take some pictures.  The first few aren't of Rabbit Island but of places around Stoke and Nelson.  I hope you enjoy. 

 Gooseberry pie and a plunger of coffee

 Cycle way 20 kilometers long connecting Nelson, Stoke, and Richmond

Stokes Oval Track and Field Facility 

Farms and pasture land south of the track 

Beach along Rabbit Island, a national park 20 minutes West of Nelson 

 10K worth of straight soft tracks

 Tasman Bay

 More Tracks 

The small town of Mapua across from Rabbit Island 

 Firm sand covers most of the roads on the island, perfect for running.

Entering the interior from the coast 

Beach Access 

Running with sweat in the eyes

Arriving

Moving Free is a way to keep in touch with my family and friends.  It's also a way to share my thoughts and feeling with those who care.  I'll be sharing pictures, videos, and thoughts of my days here in Neslon, New Zealand.  I hope to create a reflection of my own individual process, I hope it always looks like me.  I'd also like to give a different perspective on running and why I have chosen it as a medium to create something beautiful.  I'll be writing about reflections on my training, reflections on work, thoughts about life, interesting characters on the bus, and things I'm inspired by.  It will be about my struggles, my successes, and random experiences that make me think twice.  I'll write about whatever the hell I want.  I hope to get better at writing too.  It's an invaluable tool and you can't have a thought unless you can explain it.  This is my attempt at originality.  There will always be more to come and I hope you enjoy.