Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September, 2019

Running with the Magpies

I’m not much of a runner. I’m heavier these days. I start with 200 steps, counting as I run. Breathing in and out with the numbers, taking it slowly over the rocky, wet path. Stones, tree roots, furrows and puddles, 77-78-79-80. Keep going. I pass 200, and feel lighter. I’m thinking of magpies and lifting my feet to float and I keep going and it’s 500, then 800 and I’ve made 1000 and I’m still going and I feel like I’m flying. I’m doing it for the Magpies I tell myself. At 1500 I stop for breath and to take in the view as the rain keeps falling. 'Stay on the Path' the sign says and it seems like it’s telling those Pies 'Stay true. Keep going boys'. I take off again around the cliff path and I reckon I can make it to 2000. I count myself onto the headland, and look across–there are the magpies! An adult and a youngster, just picking at the grass. Hopping. Poking their beaks into the soft soil. Burdle-durdle-dup I say. Hip hop onto the path at Hell’s Gates and off t