Running has done many things for me. It has got me fit. It has got me out to see sights I would never have otherwise seen. It has given me motivation in ways I could not have imagined. But I continually find it does one other thing too – it helps combat loneliness when I am away from home.
This is not a “woe is me, look at how tough my life is” post, not at all. I have a great family. I am incredibly lucky to have had a job which, over the past twelve years, has seen me travel to many incredible places. But in truth, many of those trips are made on my own. And many of those trips involved lots of nights staying in a succession of hotel rooms and lots of time on my own.
That kind of lifestyle – lots of flights, eating on planes, eating in hotels, drinking in hotels – was what saw my weight balloon until I got to the stage almost four years ago now when I realised I needed to do something to get back on an even keel and restore my health. Running was not really part of the plan initially but as time has gone on I have found it is essential, providing a positive impact for both my physical and mental health.
Loneliness is not always about being on my own. I find that I can feel alone even when I am in a room surrounded by other people – whether that is a meeting room or a restaurant. It is a sense of separation from those I love and care about and while people are, of course, generally friendly, it is simply not the same feeling as being inside your own house.
Time spent on my own can be therapeutic of course, but too many hours spent in hotel bedrooms watching a succession of twenty four hour news channels – often the only English language channels which are shown in hotels – or doing work until late at night, or scrolling through my phone looking through social media posts is not conducive to long-term healthy habits. I rarely turn the TV on in hotel rooms now. And allied to the ready availability of room service or hotel restaurants that temptation to comfort eat can also become overwhelming as a way of compensating for being away. Running takes me away from all of that.
” That is not “alone” time.”
I am in the middle of a really busy spell of traveling right now, a spell which in the past might have seen me endlessly whiling away my time doing the things I have outlined above, but now I use that time to get out. I use it to plan when I am going to run, where I am going to run and how far that run is going to be. Yes, of course, when I run I often run on my own, but that is not wasted time on my own. That is not “alone” time. That is time when I know what I am doing is helping me in so many ways.
I do try and run with colleagues when I am away with work, but often that just does not work out, so, like it was over the past ten days or so, I find myself out running solo in darkened streets.
My recent work trip was to Amsterdam to attend a trade show. With the Glasgow half marathon coming up next weekend, I wanted to maintain the progress that I felt I had made in recent weeks and get in some consistent runs. So for five of the seven mornings when I was away I set my alarm early, I got out the door of the hotel long before it was light, and I pounded my way through the quiet streets.
Amsterdam is, of course, very flat, so it was a nice contrast to my usual hilly runs at home and there is something magical about that feeling when you know that you have motivated yourself to get out and do something that very few people are doing. With the desire for a long run to get done, I even found myself in bed before 9pm on Saturday night so I could get out just after 5am on Sunday morning to get in an eleven mile run. The difference between me now and me four years ago in terms of motivation is like night and day (if you will excuse the pun).
Returning from Amsterdam on Tuesday night, I was only at home for less than seven hours before my next trip, over to Madrid. Again, this was another night in another hotel, this time in an industrial estate area on the outskirts of the city. My first thought when I was unpacking and repacking? Get the running gear in and get out and explore.
As it was, there was a running/cycling path very close to the hotel so once again I was out before dawn to get in a 5km run before going to work.
You may also think, “does all that running before work not mean that you are tired at work?”. Well the simple answer to that is no. I find that the positive feeling I get from a run carries me through the rest of the day. The run helps kick start my metabolism and that continues into my daily routine. One thing I would like to do a bit more of though is sleep a bit longer and more soundly. Constantly sleeping in different beds does not really help either, nor does having to take very early or very late flights. Speaking of which, I fly to the United States in the morning for a short business trip – not exactly ideal preparation for a half marathon.
Running has helped me get through things in ways that I could not really have believed a few years back. Unfortunately I picked up a bit of a cold towards the end of the Amsterdam trip so I am taking things easy this weekend and taking a break for a few days. I am in good shape for Glasgow and missing a run or two now will not really make a huge amount of difference. As I have said many times before, I am a hobby runner, it is just something I do for fun and I need to remember that more often. Hence why I am also chilled about the transatlantic trip.
There is no doubt that running has had a hugely positive impact on my body and my mind. I am not trying to preach here. I am not trying to say that everyone has to get up get out and run marathons to make them feel better about themselves, absolutely not. What I am saying is that the next time I go away and feel a bit down or alone, I know that I can put on my shoes, go outside, run some miles, enjoy time in my own company and soothe the stresses of life.
craigaw 1969 