Sometimes I train for the simple pleasures it brings – sweat stinging the eyes on a summer afternoon, lungs labouring as the legs run me out of the comfort zone, the sheer satisfaction of a shower washing away the exertion. Some other times I need a target to pull me through the routine that regular training becomes, such as Lifecycle in 2008 or the Madonie trail mountain marathon in 2011.
I’ve now set my sights on next year’s challenge. Put in figures it reads: 0 – 3000 / 42.195. In words, that’s running a full marathon which starts at sea level and finishes at an altitude of 3000 metres. Reading between the lines (and if my math is correct), there’s an average gradient of 7% for each and every one of those 42 kilometres.
The location is Mount Etna. The date is 16 June 2012. The time is 08oohrs. The aim is to keep going up unless the volcano brings me down … to my knees in submission. In answer to the question, ‘why this event?’, it’s because living on an island of mere hills, I cannot even begin to imagine a non-stop climb of that magnitude.
The purpose of adding a new page (click tab at top right) to my website is two-fold. Making my commitment public should help me through (inevitable) phases when enthusiasm begins to flag – the ‘I don’t want to lose face’ motivating principle. Also, I wish to share my preparation for the event should anyone else think of doing it, be it in 2012 or future years. To this end I’ll be logging weekly updates, with Monday being the target publication day.
Suha Arafat, the wife of the late Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, is facing the possibility of having an international arrest warrant issued against her by the Tunisian government. Without going into the merits of the case, I can’t help noticing how prompt she is in trying to rope in religion to her defence. Only last week, in my post Merry Christmas, I commented that “Many on this island shuddered upon hearing the words “Islam” and “sharia”, immediately fearing that Maltese Catholicism was facing a new threat.” Ms Arafat is finely attuned to Maltese fears and sentiments so, with an Islamist party emerging victorious in recent Tunisian elections, she stated (as quoted in today’s timesofmalta.com), “I have the Madonna of Malta, she’s with me. I always pray to her and I know she knows that I’m innocent and she will not let me down.”
