I managed my first 10 mile run today (and increased my average speed to 5.7 miles an hour). It wasn't as difficult as I had expected (maybe because I don't have all that whorish hair holding me down any more). In fact the second 5 miles were probably easier than the first.
As my watch ticked over the ten mile mark I felt a massive surge of achievement. It made the scale of the Marathon both very apparent, but also(probably for the first time), genuinely achievable. I'm not even finding the actual running boring. I enjoy having the time to think and the struggle between mind and body. It's almost more of a mental than a physical discipline. Your body comes up with all kinds of excuses to stop and then your mind joins in. But if you can overcome the doubts and take control of the situation you reach a very satisfying and peaceful place. It's almost religious. In that it is clearly an imaginary delusion.
But if world leaders had to go for a two hour run before making important decisions I don't think there'd be any more wars.
Nor, I suspect, that many surviving world leaders.
