The Famished Road – Part II
Hours Since Last Food: 24
Hours Since Last proper meal: 48
Miles Run Today: 10
20:18 Just returned from our run today up the beautiful Rio Baker valley, glaciers oozing with snow melt, fierce, jagged peaks jutting out of the rock and ice, and yet the valleys, in the height of summer as it is, have an warm mossy air trapped by another day of sun. There’s a water shortage at the moment which is almost unheard of here in a part of the world where it rains 8000mm/year. Normally if its not raining here, then either it just has, or its about to. But the micro-hydro generator isn’t doing its job and the lights are out, quite literally. This doesn’t concern us during this evenings run because over the last 24 hours we have become somewhat myopic in trying to not think about food. Try it – it has exactly the opposite effect of course!
This morning I didn’t drink enough water and felt hungry. When I passed urine it seemed fairly evident I was dehydrated as well as hungry. The effect of a glass or two of water immediately dispelled both problems and we were able to continue working on the laptops with more-or-less the same focus as usual. Until I thought about not thinking about food again, that is. The brain has a habit of well, habits, it seems. I wasn’t dizzy, or particularly tired, we don’t even have any regular eating pattern in our lives, we certainly don’t need to eat all we do, it’s just that we have been lucky enough to be fed without much more than 12 hours passing since we were born, and my brain has become somewhat used to that.
The dull headache that started yesterday continues, but its just background noise, nothing too unpleasant, just enough to remind me to sympathise with the next person who tells me they have just given up coffee.
Nothing like a training run to take our minds off things, we thought. Started running at 1800, deliberately setting a slow pace. Light packs bobbed around without too much weight, and as mentioned the scenery is outstanding. At mile three we kept a 10 minute mile pace – 6 miles an hour, very slow, keeping injury free is the name of the game, and it seemed the effect of running was actually distracting us from thoughts of food. At 5miles I scoffed to Kath I couldn’t believe how good we felt, not a proper feed in 48hrs yet not a single pang of hunger! At mile 8 that changed rapidly, I was caught broadside by a walloping pang, I’m not sure where from. I tried to ask Kath, without putting words in her mouth, or thoughts into her mind, whether she might be feeling anything untoward – her expression told the story.
So there it is, 8 miles. It’s not like we don’t have plenty of reserves in our bodies so we continued, at the same steady pace but, for me at least, the mountians don’t look quite the same and it has been difficult to shake my mind off hunger since it started. The limbs are fine, both of us have a few rubs etc, normal stuff especially given the lack of running opportunites lately, no black outs just yet. The only difference is I want eat!
It’s too early to plan tomorrows celebratory feast, in fact this place is so far off the map it’s not like we can head to town and get some value out of a all-you-can-eat pizza, but the thought is now lodged firmly in my mind. Actually, writing about it is not helping so I’ll be off……
Hours To Go: 24
Miles To Go: 10