[Music]
Jenny Jenny the SH and Jimmy and I first
got to know each other on the Highland
Trail 550 last year as a 550 mile
mountain by trace around the Highlands
of Scotland the rules are simple you can
eat and sleep when you like but the
clock never stops you have to follow
this set route and you have to remain
completely self-sufficient which for me
means carrying everything I need to eat
and sleep along the way but the story I
want to share with you today is a story
of how I race this race it’s the day
after the Highland trail 550 and feel
like of just walking from a dream a 4d
adventure of moving through the most
magical of dream worlds I’ve been
changed by this unquestionably changed
to move like this to manage myself like
this has taught me more about myself in
four days than an entire career of elite
level racing ever dead and the thing is
it was easy
not the pushing of the pedals or the
carrying of my fully loaded bike over
call after call of course that was hard
what was easy was the simplicity of the
doing and being because when the Ray
just becomes life and your only
objective is to keep moving forwards
through it and things become very simple
and peaceful nothing hurts not really
the painful points they come and go like
the weather in the end like the weather
are neither good or bad this was just a
big bike ride I find as a result of
writing 550 miles in 4 days 5 hours and
50 minutes I’m quite changed the 160
over sembilan syndrome on that on the 26
of me for a 9:00 a.m. start there’s no
fanfare there’s no start then somebody
just says go and we are off battling up
the west island we 59 bearded blokes and
me
I raid for a hundred and thirty miles
that first II until at one point in the
late afternoon a look around and vaguely
register that in a small group of guys
I’m leading this wreath at 1:00 a.m. I
bed down in a MIDI ditch and catch three
hours of blissful cd2 is a blur
a fast Landrover track and darkening
skies until I reach the most northerly
point in the route glengoolie I look up
over infamous viola in a bar and I think
I’ve got to carry my bike up but I just
don’t know if I can I’m tired and cold
and wet and scared I think back to the
advice those mountain bike coaches in my
professional racing days would have
given me they would have said leave
something scares you you attack it claim
it conquer it I don’t want to I just
want a cuddle from my mum and so instead
I conjure her up in my mind’s eye and
all the other amazing people I’ve got in
my life that would care for me and
encouraged me to the top of the Bialik
and together we ensure way up that claim
when I get to the top I’m rewarded just
a few metres away for a young deer they
sniff the air and they whack all their
ears and then they actually walk towards
me now I don’t know about you but that
has never happened to me before
d3
it’s 9:00 a.m. and I’ve already been
writing for five hours my senses are so
sharpened by isolation that the birds
are deaf like the gore smells
overwhelming I have to resupply with
food so I dropped down into ullapool and
visit tacticals
if your senses are already heightened do
not go to testicles I grab whatever I
need to survive on the bike and leave
with pockets full of custard and
sardines and I am back into the
mountains back into my safe place I ride
for another ten hours that day until
fatigue overwhelms me I fall asleep on
the bike and it end up in the Heather
now I know what you’re thinking you’re
thinking why did she not just go home
and make herself a nice cup of tea but
the thing is if I did that that cup of
tea would only be a nice cup of tea and
I know if I can get to the end of this
shade that cup of tea will taste sublime
the next day I literally bump into the
two race leader’s I turn a corner in the
trail and there they are they are
swearing and cursing and muscling their
bikes over tussocky grass now I am
honored to be up there in the mix with
these guys they’re a bit confused that
women is there to matching their peace
but I deserve to be there covering the
ground faster than I am but my stops are
more efficient they are running the
gauntlet between food outlets
whereas with my high percentage body fat
and female metabolism I can afford to
cruise a bit more steadily we’re all
stressed out here but we’re handling
that stress differently it looks very
much to me as though the boys are
battling conquering striving to get
through this terrain whereas I’m
actually drawing strength from the
environment that I’m moving through and
from the people I’m gathering around me
in my head you could see I’m racing this
in a female way but that’s maybe not
quite accurate because what happens next
prizes us all with to lead riders we up
ahead knock and lumps out of each other
to get to the finish line first I am
joined ten miles from the end by two
other guys and wordlessly we agree we’re
going to write this reason together
and that’s how it ends the three of us
discussing politics religion the arts
feminism holding gates open for each
other and they’re lining up through your
breasts to roll over that finish line
together after four days five hours and
50 minutes and joint third place just a
few hours two hours in fact behind lead
writers who incidentally are in a
crumpled heap in the carpark and it
occurs to me that so often we allow
these characteristics to overshadow to
be overshadowed by strength and
aggression cooperation collaboration
mutual care remaining connected to each
other in the environment we’re teaching
our children that in order to succeed
they have to be infallible and show
unyielding strength and yet maybe
there’s a different way to win the race
you’ll need to excuse Julie and I know
we have to get on a flight to Canada
this weekend where we are racing 3,000
miles to the Mexican border wish us luck
you
Jenny Jenny the SH and Jimmy and I first
got to know each other on the Highland
Trail 550 last year as a 550 mile
mountain by trace around the Highlands
of Scotland the rules are simple you can
eat and sleep when you like but the
clock never stops you have to follow
this set route and you have to remain
completely self-sufficient which for me
means carrying everything I need to eat
and sleep along the way but the story I
want to share with you today is a story
of how I race this race it’s the day
after the Highland trail 550 and feel
like of just walking from a dream a 4d
adventure of moving through the most
magical of dream worlds I’ve been
changed by this unquestionably changed
to move like this to manage myself like
this has taught me more about myself in
four days than an entire career of elite
level racing ever dead and the thing is
it was easy
not the pushing of the pedals or the
carrying of my fully loaded bike over
call after call of course that was hard
what was easy was the simplicity of the
doing and being because when the Ray
just becomes life and your only
objective is to keep moving forwards
through it and things become very simple
and peaceful nothing hurts not really
the painful points they come and go like
the weather in the end like the weather
are neither good or bad this was just a
big bike ride I find as a result of
writing 550 miles in 4 days 5 hours and
50 minutes I’m quite changed the 160
over sembilan syndrome on that on the 26
of me for a 9:00 a.m. start there’s no
fanfare there’s no start then somebody
just says go and we are off battling up
the west island we 59 bearded blokes and
me
I raid for a hundred and thirty miles
that first II until at one point in the
late afternoon a look around and vaguely
register that in a small group of guys
I’m leading this wreath at 1:00 a.m. I
bed down in a MIDI ditch and catch three
hours of blissful cd2 is a blur
a fast Landrover track and darkening
skies until I reach the most northerly
point in the route glengoolie I look up
over infamous viola in a bar and I think
I’ve got to carry my bike up but I just
don’t know if I can I’m tired and cold
and wet and scared I think back to the
advice those mountain bike coaches in my
professional racing days would have
given me they would have said leave
something scares you you attack it claim
it conquer it I don’t want to I just
want a cuddle from my mum and so instead
I conjure her up in my mind’s eye and
all the other amazing people I’ve got in
my life that would care for me and
encouraged me to the top of the Bialik
and together we ensure way up that claim
when I get to the top I’m rewarded just
a few metres away for a young deer they
sniff the air and they whack all their
ears and then they actually walk towards
me now I don’t know about you but that
has never happened to me before
d3
it’s 9:00 a.m. and I’ve already been
writing for five hours my senses are so
sharpened by isolation that the birds
are deaf like the gore smells
overwhelming I have to resupply with
food so I dropped down into ullapool and
visit tacticals
if your senses are already heightened do
not go to testicles I grab whatever I
need to survive on the bike and leave
with pockets full of custard and
sardines and I am back into the
mountains back into my safe place I ride
for another ten hours that day until
fatigue overwhelms me I fall asleep on
the bike and it end up in the Heather
now I know what you’re thinking you’re
thinking why did she not just go home
and make herself a nice cup of tea but
the thing is if I did that that cup of
tea would only be a nice cup of tea and
I know if I can get to the end of this
shade that cup of tea will taste sublime
the next day I literally bump into the
two race leader’s I turn a corner in the
trail and there they are they are
swearing and cursing and muscling their
bikes over tussocky grass now I am
honored to be up there in the mix with
these guys they’re a bit confused that
women is there to matching their peace
but I deserve to be there covering the
ground faster than I am but my stops are
more efficient they are running the
gauntlet between food outlets
whereas with my high percentage body fat
and female metabolism I can afford to
cruise a bit more steadily we’re all
stressed out here but we’re handling
that stress differently it looks very
much to me as though the boys are
battling conquering striving to get
through this terrain whereas I’m
actually drawing strength from the
environment that I’m moving through and
from the people I’m gathering around me
in my head you could see I’m racing this
in a female way but that’s maybe not
quite accurate because what happens next
prizes us all with to lead riders we up
ahead knock and lumps out of each other
to get to the finish line first I am
joined ten miles from the end by two
other guys and wordlessly we agree we’re
going to write this reason together
and that’s how it ends the three of us
discussing politics religion the arts
feminism holding gates open for each
other and they’re lining up through your
breasts to roll over that finish line
together after four days five hours and
50 minutes and joint third place just a
few hours two hours in fact behind lead
writers who incidentally are in a
crumpled heap in the carpark and it
occurs to me that so often we allow
these characteristics to overshadow to
be overshadowed by strength and
aggression cooperation collaboration
mutual care remaining connected to each
other in the environment we’re teaching
our children that in order to succeed
they have to be infallible and show
unyielding strength and yet maybe
there’s a different way to win the race
you’ll need to excuse Julie and I know
we have to get on a flight to Canada
this weekend where we are racing 3,000
miles to the Mexican border wish us luck
you
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