I have just boarded the plane from Faro after another running holiday. For some years now I have taken it upon myself to arrange these trips. The invite is open and goes to groups of friends and friends of those. There is a core to the group, but the full roster changes with every trip. I want to try and capture the "why" of organising and pushing for these trips, but also to reinforce the underlying message - as an individual, just show up, and put yourself at the service of others.
We've been to many places over the years, sometimes repeats and often linked to a race. There are a few challenges when it comes to organising these weekends. The first is finding a date that works for a quorum of the group, and the second is getting people to commit to coming. More on this later.
I've always found that the "race centric" weekends are a little harder to make work. We've had a lot of good trips, but the race and the specific distance can be quite self selecting and, as I will get on to later, having a frictionless entry criteria really helps.
This trip idea was forged when I was away with Basil. We had done an A to B run over a few days with our bags transferred for us, and the format was more adventure, more interesting and quite different.
The destination was the west coast of Portugal, the Algarve, and contrary to my misguided belief this is a rugged and wonderfully remote, interesting and rural area of Portugal.
We flew into Faro and the group met in Loulé for lunch, just north of Faro. As people assembled in the sunshine outside a cafe, the dreary November UK weather was a distant memory. Spirits were high as friends reunited and connections were remade. This is part of the why.
This blog is not about the who, well not by name anyway. We had runners returning from injury, for whom 5km had been a recent achievement, through to those for whom 30km wasn't a stretch, and everything in between. I've been taking my time returning to full training since Badwater, 15km being my longest run, so I was a little unsure how I would fare.
The format was fairly simple. We would predominantly be running along the Fishermen's Trail down towards the end of Europe, a lighthouse just south west of Sagres. Wide trails, easy navigation and not too many technical sections. A 30km day, 12km and 20km, different stops each night and no pressure to complete the full run.
By removing the expectations and indeed the requirement to "complete" each day in full, the inevitable happened. Those who set out to complete a section did complete a section, but it was far further than they had set out. Not because they were pushed, but instead because they were present and supported. They ran in conversation, they ran with others, and the time, whilst actually slower, went faster. An "8km hope" became a "20km reality" and every other version of that.
It wasn't all about running, it was in fact about everyone having time. The time that was created by being surrounded by friends, conversation and the relaxed culture of south Portugal gave everyone something special.
What is most special about these trips is that everyone brings their piece of the jigsaw. There are a lot of different characters, there are a lot of different backgrounds. The simple and yet under appreciated formula of "doing some activity with other people" is the founding principle of the charity Rach and I started, it's the fundamental basis of these trips, and when we all get a moment to stop and pause, surely it's the core tenet of being a human?
I will broach the topic of AI, which may seem random, but it's actually vital we all open our eyes. It is also my day job, so I am watching this from the front row. We are going to see seismic shifts in all areas of life, I predict, in a timescale we are not prepared for. Careers, education, our very purpose have the potential to be completely upended if we are not very aware of what is vital to our ongoing existence. It is our relationships, our connections and our community that are in fact what we need, but we have to work hard on that.
Now as I return home, I will be at my desk, I will be trying to work hard to make money to "buy" time to do things I enjoy. I will also spend most of this week alone in front of a screen, which is quite something from a bloke who has just spent a page telling you that connection is what matters most. I am not always doing as I say. Have we got it wrong? Why do we work all these hours to try to make time, when we cannot make time? There is only this very moment where we are, the past has gone and the future is completely unknown. There is something slightly crazy about this notion. I do it, and I am not for a second pretending I have the answer, but perhaps we have collectively forgotten to even ask the question?
As we ran along the coast, we saw van-lifers parked up, their view from the window: the Atlantic ocean. Surfers dotted along the breaks waiting for that next ride, completely at the mercy of nature. Did they look at us and question our sanity for running that trail? If they knew we were there for just the weekend, would they have wondered why we didn't stay forever and choose a different path for tomorrow, both literally and metaphorically? We all looked at them and asked the question, but we asked it half heartedly. A passing thought perhaps.
There was a lot of laughter, far more laughter than your average few days. Everyone spent time connecting, sharing, listening and being, and I think we all return home with a slightly fuller soul than when we left. Perhaps the motivation to organise, cajole and encourage everyone onto these trips is that I know deep down they are a correction for the fact I don't do as I say as often as I should. That, that is my why.
Every piece of the jigsaw was important, no one piece more important than another. The picture that was created was unique, and the memory is one of the collective experience. The next trip won't be the same, it won't be better or worse, but it will be made by the people who all decide to just say yes to the invitation, and make that simple but sometimes hard first step.
Thank you to all of you. You know who you are, and you know you were all part of something special. Take that and cherish it, because at the end of the day it's the most important commodity there is.
