The Bends and the Lost Art of the Daily Adventure

It’s been a pretty poor season for my hiking and outdoor activity recently. Work demands have played a big part in not getting the same time for the hills.

I’m plagued with comparisons to my outdoor life last year in which I managed to get out and about far more often, increased my knowledge phenomenally and generally came along leaps and bounds. Last year I managed to complete 2 Marathons, the Mourne Mountain Marathon and walked the Camino De Santiago in Spain. This is alongside making progress with climbing and a host of other adventures.

Despite the talk of work and time constraints part of me wonders is that the process that’s at work or is something more elemental at work? Did I do so much last year and come along so fast that it wasn’t sustainable? Did I hit so many highs that there was nowhere to go?

Part of the downturn I’ve noticed is the lack of regular early morning runs. I had passed this time off as simply an exercise time and am beginning to understand that these are more than just exercise periods. These micro-micro adventures feed the imagination and the soul. It was during these sessions I often thought up of my next adventure. Imagined myself completing my next feat of endurance. Smiling as I ran so present in these daydreams. Endorphins flooding the system and firing the will and the creative self.

I’ve now returned to the daily ritual of donning training gear and taking those hard steps out into the cold morning, more still I’ve begun to recapture that magic to be had when you take a trip to the outdoors and use it as your playground. I can feel the adventure creep back into my veins, hear those whispers of challenge in the quiet of dawn and dare to dream of challenges that may be beyond my grasp.

I have returned to the daily adventure……. And I’ve missed them!

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Rusty Surginor

Rusty is a keen hiker of the Mourne mountains and Belfast hills, who also enjoys camping, preferably with the minimum amount of equipment required. An occasional climber and regular outdoor runner, Rusty enjoys varied outdoor pursuits and even indulges in a little quiet bird watching to relax after a few gruelling days in the hills. Rusty also trains regularly in multiple martial arts disciplines and is an enthusiastic advocate of self defence amongst others in outdoors circles.

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