Saturday, June 05, 2010

Seeing But Not Seeing


Juneathon Day 5: run 10.96km time 1hr 8min

It is amazing what you don’t see. I was back by the canal today, on a route I have run more frequently than any other. I feel I know it well, and always assumed the were new things to look at because so much is changeable like the boats, the wildlife, and plant growth. I didn’t realise that there are always new things to see because I don’t pay enough attention and miss what is before me.

This decayed iron railing is a case in point. I really cannot count how many times I have run past it but until today I was completely unaware of it. Strangely it is the sort of thing I find of passing interesting. I like seeing signs of previous buildings or activities that have now gone. My guess is that this was once a lock keepers cottage (only based on the fact that it is near a lock), but there is no sign of a house, everything is overgrown with no signs of the outline of the foundations. Standing there alone, the fence now looks odd and out of place.

It got me thinking about how much of the world around me I actually notice. Not enough is the answer. In the same way that Juneathon is forcing me to tackle an exercise deficit, I must find a conscious way of attacking an attention deficit. Just repeating the word 3 time is not good enough.

Juneathon stats 5/5
run 4/5
distance 29.46km
time 2hr 54min
Cycle 1/5
distance 21 miles
time 1hr 32min

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