The rumour is true … Trail Runner Magazine Edition #2 has snuck out onto the webosphere. You can download all the dirt and drama on the Zine page or right click/save as on the cover right to download the file to your desktop (remember to follow download instructions and view in pdf Reader or Preview, not in a web browser).
TRM Ed#3 cover
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And, you’re here now…may as well read the AU Editor’s letter – a little taste…
TRAILS & TRIBULATIONS
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’ve lost all they got and they don’t know what for – Regina Spektor
I’m not religious. But Dan is dead. And I’m certainly not laughing at God. And I certainly wasn’t laughing in the hospital at his bedside, two days before he left us. I’m not laughing at cancer and I don’t know what it’s for.
This edition wasn’t supposed to be the misery edition. Promise. Going into spring I wanted the lightness to shine through, the words and images we present inside a reflection of the glowing wattle flower cover. But a glance over the line-up reads like the blackest shade of pale: cancer, car accidents, fires, death.
But read on. Pretend this edition is an ultra: persevere, push past the pain and you’ll find a spring of sunshine.
I do admit that I cried just prior to writing this editorial. Tears on the keyboard.
I welled up as I read Duncan’s words telling of a journey in life that no father ever wants to take.
Maybe it’s because I share a connection of fatherhood with this man I have never met. Maybe that’s why I now wipe my MacBook with Kleenex – parenthood both makes and breaks a man.
His is one journey that I hope never to embark upon but feel richer for having read it, for there is a radiance of strength in his story of overwhelming sadness. There is bravery. There is life peeled back to a core of indefinable pain that brings forth hope, some of it found on the trail.
What has this to do with trail running?
Nothing and everything.
Trail running is a journey off the predictable bitumen of regimented life. It takes us places that physically hurt– sometimes to places of incandescent pain – and mentally it can take us to tears. Yet we step onto that trail chasing such moments of lowness because we know that they have the power to bring out the best in us; to make us stronger than we were before we reached the nadir.
From the valleys of death we find the power to look up, see the mountain, be challenged by it, be scared by it, but take a step forward up the trail, towards where we can see the sun breaching the summit. And we move despite the pain. Another step. Over another rock. Another tree root. Another rise. Another false summit. And there, there is the pinnacle and the world opens up to a view that not long ago we thought we’d never see, a view that we thought was impossible to reach.
That is the choice we make when we step onto a trail. To just keep the fuck going.
The rest – the experience, the moments of realisation, the moments of self, the moments…that is the trail working its magic.
I was going to write about my ongoing battle with a left leg ITB problem. For the last few months it has filled my world with frustration and even depression. But then I read this edition. It was an easy decision to instead labor some on what was perhaps touched upon in my first editorial. But I take the risk of riposte in the repetition because it matters. Dan matters. Duncan’s son matters. Kate Sanderson and Turia Pitt, the brave women whose lives are changed irrevocably after the Kimberly bushfire tragedy, they matter.
A bloody dodgy ITB does not matter. Running with it glowing red is not even a light scratch compared to the pain others cop on life’s debris-strewn trail.
And so I hit the trail, ITB be damned, in the hope that just as Duncan sees his lost son every time he runs a mountain, maybe I’ll see Dan out there. Hell, I might even see God, whatever that is to a heathen like me.
It’d be a good run if I did. The three of us can all have a good laugh together.
Then the prick can fix my ITB.
No one’s laughing at God
We’re all laughing with God
– Regina Spektor
**Happy trails. Chris Ord, The Ordinary Trail Runner & AU Editor
Shit man you bring a tear to my eyes and a laugh at the same time. My, you are a talented fella… T
It is spimle physics: The thicker the shoe sole, the easier it is to roll an ankle also, the thicker the shoe sole, the more catastrophic the injury.A shoe sole that is thicker under the heel than under the ball of foot (raises up your heel) is also more prone to twisting an ankle. An extreme example would be trying to run down a rocky trail in high heels ? yikes.The best trail shoes are level (zero drop) between heel and ball of foot. Unfortunately, the shoe companies are just wising up to this. There are a few zero drop shoes that are not totally minimal and offer some comfort and protection ? Altra come to mind.If you have ankles that are damaged from previous ankle sprains, an ankle brace can certainly help prevent additional injuries and give you confidence on rocky terrain.Avoid the braces that have metal or plastic stays or ones that are inflatable or neoprene or elastic ? they do not work. Lace up braces with some kind of cross wrap strapping is best. A good brand of braces is ASO. They are lace up with Velcro wrap around straps. Wear them over your socks and inside your shoes. The best prices are on eBay. If you have health insurance that covers physical therapy, your physical therapist can get them.For additional support, put the brace around your foot bed (insole). It makes it a bit harder to put your shoes on. You must take the insoles out of the shoe, put the brace on your foot while the foot bed is on the bottom of your foot. Then slide your foot (with the insole strapped to it) into your shoe. It requires really loosening up the laces of the shoe and a shoe horn can help.Having the foot bed inside the brace next to your foot really locks your foot into the shoe and stiffens the brace. Even with clunky thick soled high heeled shoes this combination gives good support. It makes just about any running shoe more stable.Braces do add weight and stiffness and will slow you down. The security and injury prevention is worth it in some cases. The ASO braces are about 4 to 5 ounces.