So the reclamation continues.

I decided to reclaim my body. My beautiful wife gave me a Nike+ to attach to my nano, which allows me to set runs of varying duration, distance, or calorie burning capacity. It keeps all the statistics for me &, for a “counter” like myself, it gives me that opportunity to push things just that little bit further every day.

Run #1 was 2km. 3 weeks later I managed 7kms.

Look, I’m not kidding myself, we’re talking tiny distances here, particularly compared to my mate Tim, who just came back from Busselton, where he swam 1.8km, rode 180km & then ran 42km all in 15 hours over 1 day (and that was slow for him!)

But it doesn’t matter. I am reclaiming my body & more importantly, I’m reclaiming the little pleasures that are hidden within this amazing creation of God’s.

There’s a real sense of exhilaration when one finds that you can recover while you are still running.

There is that moment when you feel like your stride is nice & even & your balance is good.

And, best of all, that point where you push on behind that lazy-tiredness & feel suddenly like you could run forever (True, this is usually followed by legitimate tiredness, but it doesn’t matter. It is a glorious moment.)

It’s exciting and encouraging & also a time for rebuke when one realises what I might be capable of, were it not for my laziness, gluttony, or absent mindedness.

I hope I keep it up. I like the challenge of pushing a little bit further, and, so far, I feel like I am more awake when I actually tell my body that it is OK to work hard.

Maybe if I conquer the body, I can work out on a couple of aspects of the mind next?