All The Gear and No Idea?

Naturally, the first thing I did when I decided to take up running seriously was go shopping.

Having heard that compression clothing was the latest thing, I ordered a pair of Under Armour Core X Coldgear Tight Running Pants to try. The words tight running pants (a.k.a tights) should have been my first clue and of course what looked like a delicate pink on screen turned out to be fluro pink. Oh well nevermind, I thought trying them on in the privacy of own my living room. They felt great and fitted like a glove.

My second purchase was a gorgeous wind-stopper jacket from Brian at RunTru.

Pearl Izumi in brand and extremely lightweight, the shell I chose was fluorescent yellow or screaming yellow as described on their website. Thus it became apparent on my first outing in my new gear, that I must have envisaged running in the dark, when nobody would see me.

I’ve always said that if I marry an American I’m going to do so in Vegas dressed as an alien – green face, friends wearing foil hats… now a pair of compression tights with fluro pink threading and a screaming yellow shell may be all that’s needed to complete the scene. In the meantime, I will continue to run around Falmouth, thankful that I am not quite the slowest runner in the world and that if people are commenting I’m not hanging about to hear it!

The good news about compression tights is that they wrap around my shins and calves, quadriceps and hamstrings and make my legs feel less like legs and more like leg machinery. This may sound very odd, which of course it is, but if you follow my logic – if they feel less like legs, then I can pretend that they’re not my legs! ‘Come on legs!’ I can say as if they are outside of my will – the pathetic will that obviously wants to slow down and preferably stop. This is all part of the training. My legs need to learn to transport my upper body around 6 times per week, so that when they stop they feel like they are intended to keep going, up dunes, down dunes…

Like an athlete, a long distance runner
On a track meet spring, fall, winter, summer

(chorus)

No alcohol, no weed
No cigarettes, no E’s
No milk, no cheese
No eggs, no meat
Just meditation and peace
Red lentils, chick peas
Good workout, good sleep
Mo’ sunshine, light breeze…

Finally I have started wearing a backpack, not intentionally mind you, but because the gym closes at 9pm. Strapped into my backpack I feel like a superhero with a jet pack. I feel invincible and fast. ‘Yes!’ I say to myself. ‘I can do anything.’ I swing my arms forward, left then right. Then I look down and my legs are moving impossibly slowly and I chuckle in comic despair. ‘How am I ever going to run across the Sahara?’

Years of Amazon training may be required…

She Blinded Me with Science!

Now that I am beginning to get serious about my entry in the Marathon des Sables 2013 and running 6 days per week (…as of last Friday), I have managed to acquire a 4-phase, 12 month training programme specifically geared towards the MdS! Carefully designed by Nic Jarvis, each phase of the programme is 12 weeks long and rather than the emphasis being on speed, the programme is governed by heart rate zones, MAP, MEP and SAP.

But the real je ne sais quoi of this programme, is that each day of the 6 in the running week corresponds to a percentage of the marathon that I will be running on-that-day in the Sahara.

Sounds good so far… but what the heck do MAP, MEP and SAP stand for? According to Ingo Logé (Exercise Physiologist Clinical Nutritionist, Chek Practitioner and the owner Of Fitness Forever Personal Training In Palm Desert, California…), who claims that a target heart rate zone can guide me to my “most energy-producing state;”

MAP  =  my Mostly Aerobic Pace (aerobic and fat burning.)

MEP = my Most Efficient Pace. “In this precise, precariously situated zone, you have the heightened awareness of a tightrope walker,” – Logé.

SAP = Speedy Anaerobic Pace “In this zone you feel noticeably challenged, in a state of greater stress and strain, with a sense of urgency and alarm!” (anaerobic sugar-burning.)

If, like me, you are struggling to believe that in heart-rate zone terms, the acronym SAP really does stand for, “Speedy Anaerobic Pace,” you can rest assured! I consulted ehow.com and an article appropriately titled, How to Run an Ultramarathon, and sure enough it does. I found further enlightenment on Chris’ Ultra Blog – thanks very much Chris!

So to work out your MAP, MEP and SAP…

180 – your age = MEP Upper Limit > 159 for me (call it 160)

MEP Upper Limit – 10 = MEP Lower Limit > 150

MEP L.L – 20 = MAP L.L > 130

MAP L.L + 20 = MAP U.L > 150

MEP U.L + 20 = SAP U.L > 180

SAP U.L – 20 = SAP L.L > 160

So, what about my poor body with all this pavement-pounding? Well, firstly I’m running off-road and along the beach as much as possible – which I really enjoy a) because it’s authentic training (It’s not called the Marathon of the Sands for nothing!) and b) because it’s beautiful when the tide is out and the waves are gently lapping the shingle. Aww…

Tide Race. Gyllyngvase Beach. Falmouth

However, as recommended by my pal Matt Judge, I have started taking a Glucosamine and Chondroitin supplement. Both substances can be found lurking in the Joint Care section of all good health-care stores and I have felt a remarkable difference to my knees. When I do squats they no longer snap, crackle and pop and when I’m out running, they don’t winge!

The US National Centre for Complementary and Alternative medicine did a study of the benefits of Glucosamine + Chondroitin and its intervention in the pain relief of osteoarthritis sufferers. Here comes the science:

Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate are natural substances found in and around the cells of cartilage. Glucosamine is an amino sugar that the body produces and distributes in cartilage and other connective tissue, and chondroitin sulfate is a complex carbohydrate that helps cartilage retain water.

According to Wikipedia, Glucosamine is produced commercially by the hydrolysis of crustacean exoskeletons (or, less commonly by fermentation of a grain such as corn or wheat), whereas Chondroitin sulphate is extracted from cow or shark cartilage. Hmm. Still, Runners’ World is an advocate as are 79.8% of their surveyed runners! I managed to find it in liquid form along with aloe vera, thanks to Forever Freedom, who have:

“…married the rich nutrients of stabilised aloe vera gel with glucosamine sulphate, chondroitin sulphate, methylsulphonylmethane (MSM), ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and tocopherol (vitamin E)…” in a “tremendous combination drink!”

Second on the supplement list is (sustainable, Antarctic Ocean) Krill Oil, which I opted for over the standard Cod liver oil, simply because the capsules are half the size. Apparently, Krill Oil is twice as effective as Cod liver oil and has the best source of uncontaminated Omega-3 EPA & DHA, blah blah blah… I did mention that the capsules were smaller didn’t I? And finally I wash that all down with a few drops of Echinaforce in water, for a little immuno-boost.

After all that jargon, I will leave you with Thomas Dolby’s eighties hit, ‘She Blinded Me with Science!’

Now all I need is a heart rate monitor, so that I can jog to my MAP, MEP and SAP zones…

‘If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl…

…but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward,’ said Martin Luther King Jr. in his ‘I have a dream’ speech.

Not only do I too have a dream – the Marathon des Sables 2013, Luther King’s words couldn’t have been better advice this week as I struggled with a shin splint. I can’t fly and so was going running. When I felt ill-advised to run, I walked. When I had walked enough miles, I crawled home and iced up! Yes, I was warned and yes I probably ran too far too soon. Or was it too fast? Or did I just heal-strike one too many times?

Either way, I have now learnt that the cheapest (and arguably most effective) ice-pack can be found, not in the pharmacy but in the supermarket’s frozen veg section. The little Tesco’s near me had run out of frozen peas (students!), but had plenty of bags of frozen sweet-corn kernels and for less dollar! It was interesting to note that a tea-towel wrapped bag of corn also delivered a lower intensity cold for longer.

However, for shin splints, the website Sports Injury Info, recommends rubbing a home-frozen ‘ice cup’ directly onto the affected area, which looks intriguing. I will have to give it a whirl.

But maybe I just need to harden up –

What Martin Luther King didn’t say, Baz Luhrman has kindly added in Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) - the song based on the poem by Mary Schmich. Here are the running-relevant lyrics:

Stretch.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

And on that note, I feel like playing a song from the band CAKE called The Distance, because when I run over 10k, I look down at my feet wheeling round and round and often think, ‘Those things beneath my waist. They’re not my legs. They’re doing their own thing.’ Perhaps this is the nirvana of running? Let’s hope so.

He’s going the distance.
He’s going for speed.
She’s all alone
In her time of need.
Because he’s racing and pacing and plotting the course,
He’s fighting and biting and riding on his horse,

He’s going the distance…

*

While we’re talking about distance, I have to mention my new 1000 mile socks, bought from Brian at Run Tru in Truro!

Made of Tactel ® a polymer which is apparently ‘soft, supplely smooth, breathable and lightweight,’ the socks have cute descriptions – women’s ‘trainer liner’ and a ‘technical racing socklet!’ To the feet, well mine anyway, the socks feel like silk gloves, which in case you’ve never put a silk glove on your foot before, feels divine! Here comes the science:

The Tactel ® inner layer stays with the foot, wicking away moisture, whilst the outer moves with the shoe.

Sounds pretty clever to me, but wait for it – my favourite bit comes under the heading THE GUARANTEE.

Money back or replacement if, within one year from date of purchase, either you experience blisters or the socks wear out within 1000 miles, provided care instructions have been followed and socks are returned with original receipt.

So, firstly I worked out how many hours, days and weeks of running that would entail.

1000 miles/1609.344 km @ 10k/hr =

161 hours of running

@1hr day/7 days p.w

= 23 weeks or just under 6 months.

Now, here’s the more important question. Assuming I run everyday in the same pair of socks and wash them overnight over the course of 6 months (and keep the receipt!), how many washes do you think the ‘technical racing socklets’ will be able to handle?

Answers on a postcard please!

...and if you can't crawl, there's always the hula!

Hello, Mister Blister!

Anyone who followed my row across the Atlantic (Jan > March 2009) might remember my battle with the nasty bleeesters on my fingers. Unfortunately in my training for the ‘Marathon des Sables,’ the danger of bleeesters is back. In fact, one little blighter has already cropped up on my middle toe.

At this stage however, I say,

Welcome, Mister Blister!

You see, if I can blister now, then my feet should become all roughty-toughty in time for the race. At least, that’s my theory. What it also tells me, is that something is wrong. According to the NHS webpage on blisters, with its fantastic orange-ring-with-red-spot-in-the-middle gravatar, in order to avoid bleeesters you can:

• wear comfortable, well-fitting shoes
• wear gloves when handling chemicals
• use sunscreen

which is fine advice, although not all applicable to my middle toe. So, it was clearly time this week to address, or rather re-dress my footwear!

Run Tru is a new, specialist running shop in Truro and so I took myself on a pilgrimage to meet Brian Price, the shop’s owner. With two pairs of Sauconys in hand, of 2004 and 2007 vintage, we set about analyzing my gait. Brian had me walk and then run across a panel on the shop floor. The panel took a pressure image of my foot, which Brian then analyzed.

The upshot is that my left foot (the victim of the bleeester) does do some kooky things! Occasionally my left leg steps ahead of my body, when it should be treading beneath or behind the plumb line of my torso. Tut tut tut! My left heel also strikes the ground inboard of my foot’s centre line. Consequently, my left foot doesn’t pronate very much, which the Asics shoe brand explains in their brilliant webpage titled Understanding Pronation. My left foot underpronates or supinates, which means:

The outer side of the heel hits the ground at an increased angle, and little or no normal pronation occurs, resulting in a large transmission of shock through the lower leg.

I learnt that as an underpronator I want to, a) avoid running in shoes that have dual density mid-soles and, b) have harder carbon-rubber on the inside of my shoes’ heel to encourage my tread more towards the centre line of my foot.

After the science part, came the shopping!

Here Brian showed me how a running shoe should fit. Once you’ve wriggled your foot into the shoe, you should give your heel a tap on the ground. This ensures that your heel is all the way back in the shoe. Next, there should be a gap of a whole thumb’s width between the tip of your big toe and the end of the shoe.

While aesthetically I fancied this sporty pair…

and I really didn’t want to buy anything white (which won’t be white for very long), I couldn’t get past the divine feeling that with these beauties,

Cinderella had been reunited with her rightful slipper! My footsie felt as snug as a bug in a rug!

With laces that stem from the sole (see beneath the PI logo), the shoe wraps the foot around the arch. I simply had to have them! Thus the fabulously titled

Pearl Izumi synchroFuel trainers for women

became mine!

If last weekend I ran 9 miles in 1hr 56mins (an aborted effort after the coastal path became an ankle-twisting mudslide), think what I could achieve this weekend!

So long, Mister Blister!

Sauna training?

Lying on the top rack of the sauna at the Falmouth Beach Hotel spa yesterday evening, I closed my eyes and imagined I was in the middle of the Sahara, running.

Yep, something like that!

Except that I wasn’t actually running, I was sitting still. I was sitting still and melting like a lollypop. I was losing the feeling of definition to my body. I was turning into liquid, my senses teased by beads of perspiration that tickled on my upper arm, right thigh and down my left breast, but not in a good way.

With my mouth closed, I could feel cool water on the roof of my mouth, condensed water. When I opened my mouth, the hot air invaded, permeated, hot air now being inside and out of me. My heart rate increased. My head seemed to expand and contract, pressure building, until my brain pounded with blood that thumped loudly in my ears. A low guttural feeling came next, of panic rising, I wanted to get out of there.

I pulled myself back to the middle of the Sahara desert.

There is no getting out of there

I calm down. I relax and the physiological symptoms disappear.

*

Back home, I threw the words ‘sauna training’ and ‘marathon’ into Google. Et voilà! I found this article by an 8-time-finisher of the (appropriately titled) Badwater Ultramarathon, which is a non-stop, 3-day, 135 mile, team event through some of the wildest terrain in Western United States in 130 degree (F) heat. 

In his article, our 8-man Arthur Webb states that the sauna serves two extremely important functions:

1. It prepares the body to deal with the blistering heat
2. It gets the body used to drinking and processing the large volume of liquids needed for survival.

Webb advocates sauna training every day, which I think is fantastic news!

When you get unexpected goose bumps at work/home or when it’s 100-degrees but feels like eighty, you are acclimated.

Perhaps training for the ‘Marathon des Sables’ isn’t going to be all pain, after all.

*

Sample four-week sauna training:

Day	Minutes in Sauna	Temperature
01	15	160
02	15	160
03	15	160
04	15	160
05	20	160
06	20	160
07	20	110 (steam)
08	25	160
09	25	160
10	25	110 (steam)
11	25	160
12	30	160
13	30	160
14	30	160
15	35	160
16	35	160
17	40	160
18	40	160
19	40	160
20	30	110 (steam)
21	45	160
22	30	170
23	40	170
24	45	170
25	30	180
26	35	110 (steam)
27	40	180
28	45	180

Check out the first 50 seconds of this video, by 2009 MdS competitor Adam CJ Park. I think ‘Fort Minor’ by Remember the Name, just became my favourite song of the day…

[Mike]
You ready? Lets go!
Yeah, for those of you who want to know what we`re all about
It`s like this y`all (c`mon!)

[Chorus]
This is ten percent luck,
Twenty percent skill,
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will,
Five percent pleasure,
Fifty percent pain,
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!

The Deadline for Entries

I received various messages throughout the day, since today is the last day for confirming a place in the Marathon des Sables 2013.  ’So?’ ‘What did you decide?’ Readers asked.

A competitor 2 years ago told Steve, one of the MdS organizers (after begging Steve to take his race number off him at check-point 2 on Day 3 – needless to say he didn’t!) after finishing the MdS, that he had worked it out. He said;

The MdS is 90% mental,

Steve nodded in acknowledgement of this sudden wisdom. The competitor then said,

I have also worked out what the other 10% is.

After a perfect comic pause he continued,

The other 10% is mental.

Well, Thomas A. Edison did say that ‘genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration!’ And if you haven’t guessed already, I’m going RUNNING!

Let us live so that when we die, even the undertaker will be sorry.

Mark Twain would be proud that I have been offered a place in the Marathon des Sables 2013 (that 156 miles, 6 day, running jolly across the sandpit of Northern Africa I mentioned in an earlier blog). Now all I have to do is accept the place, places being oversubscribed and in demand as they are and by Thursday, the deadline for joining the throng being the day after tomorrow.

While, according to marathon nutritionist Sunny Blende,

ultras are just eating and drinking contests with a little exercise and scenery thrown in,

the best ‘you-might-die, it’s-going-to-be-hell’ video, is this:

I recently read the bestseller ‘Born to Run’ by Christopher McDougall, which is a thoroughly good read, for runners and non-runners alike. (McDougall also has an excellent blog.)

Set in the Copper Canyon in Mexico, the book’s main character is a quasi-mythical white American, Caballo Blanco, who lives among the Tarahumara Running People. In his quest to discover the secret of long-distance running, McDougall who writes for Men’s Health magazine, became an ultra-running aficionado himself. So, how hard can it be?

“Don’t fight the trail.” Caballo called back over his shoulder. “Take what it gives you. If you have a choice between one step or two between rocks, take three.”

“Lesson two.” Caballo called. “Think Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast. You start with easy, because if that’s all you get, that’s not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don’t give a shit how high the hill is or how far you’ve got to go. When you’ve practiced that so long that you forget you’re practicing, you work on making it smooooooth. You won’t have to worry about the last one – you get those three and you’ll be fast.”

But perhaps the best answer to my dilemma is presented in the Charles Bukowski  poem, ‘Roll the Dice,’ read here by Bono:

if you’re going to try,
go all the way.
otherwise, don’t even start.

if you’re going to try,
go all the way.
this could mean losing girlfriends,
wives, relatives, jobs and
maybe your mind.

go all the way.
it could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days.
it could mean freezing on a
park bench.
it could mean jail,
it could mean derision,
mockery,
isolation.
isolation is the gift,
all the others are a test of your
endurance, of
how much you really want to
do it.
and you’ll do it
despite rejection and the worst odds
and it will be better than
anything else
you can imagine.

if you’re going to try,
go all the way.
there is no other feeling like
that.
you will be alone with the gods
and the nights will flame with
fire.

do it, do it, do it.
do it.

all the way
all the way.

you will ride life straight to
perfect laughter, its
the only good fight
there is.

And on that inspiring note, I’m off out for a jog. Let’s call it a little 10k taster…

Haruki Murakami – Acclaimed Novelist/Marathon Runner

Haruki Murakami began writing at the same time he began running. In fact, in his memoir, ‘What I Talk about When I Talk about Running,” Murakami reflects on 25 years of running and writing. Having spent a comparatively mere six years endeavouring to carve my own niche as an artist/sailor, this seemingly symbiotic duality fascinated me.

© Jody Barton

Murakami’s accomplishments as an author

• 12 novels translated into 42 different languages, (not to mention…)
• Translation work of 41 novels + all works by Raymond Carver
• 2 works of non-fiction.

His accomplishments as a runner

• 23 marathons,
• 6 triathlons

A novelist friend of mine who has had 6 novels published himself, said of Haruki Murakami’s memoir,

“It struck me that it was an almost perfect example of how a man can lie to himself.

His need to run was evidently never what he was claiming it to be – which is not to say that I know what the truth is, just that he was lying.”

I found this very intriguing. Did my novelist friend mean that Murakami should decide if he is a:

Novelist or runner?

When Murakami talks about trying an Iron man competition his response is:

“…the training would (most definitely) take so much time out of my schedule, it would interfere with my real job.” p177

Why run?

Does Murakami run in order to prove his own self-worth?

“Clouds are always taciturn. I probably shouldn’t be looking up at them. What I should be looking at is inside of me. My own individual, stubborn, uncooperative, often self-centered nature that still doubts itself…”

For the adrenalin rush?

“…it is precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome the pain, that we can get the feeling, through this process, of really being alive – or at least a partial sense of it.”

Or simply escapism?

“…really as I run, I don’t think much of anything worth mentioning.”

Conclusion

Three Karate-Kid type life lessons I took away from the book,

1. Discipline and
2. Endurance are character traits that can be honed by running and that possibly the best advice to aspiring writers is to
3. Focus.

“– the ability to concentrate all your limited talents on whatever’s critical at that moment.”

© http://isaiahlim.wordpress.com/category/haruki-murakami/

Wowsa!

Haruki’s monthly run mileage for the year the book was written – 2009

• June – 156 miles
• July – 186 miles
• August – 217 miles !!!
• September – 186 miles

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger!

Daft Punk & Music for Expeditions

Music for cycling, music for running, music for aerobics even – is well marketed. But what about music for Alpine cycling, ultra running and extreme sports such as offshore sailing, where the accomplishment is largely mind over body?

In the course of my ventures to date, music has played an important role in shifting my mood. Yet it is during the expeditions where I experienced prolonged periods of solitude that my top ten tunes became a list of the weird and wonderful!

For each the following expeditions my brother loaded the music selection. Thanks again Jasper!

First

My first solo stint was the ‘Faraday Mill OSTAR 2005′ (Original Single-handed Transatlantic Race) , where I spent 28 days racing single-handed from Plymouth, UK > Newport, R.I, USA. Then spent 29 days alone sailing back from Mattapoisett MASS, USA > Plymouth UK.

During these periods, I stuck in the headphones in order to:

• Relax – before napping
• Escape – be transported
• Forget – drown out the sound of the storm
• Remember – the support of volunteers, friends and family
• be reminded – to seize the day!
• be motivate – to put on those wet foulies, get up on deck and shake out more sail…
• be entertained! 

While U2′s ‘Beautiful Day,’ Shantel’s ‘All I want… is a room somewhere’ and the club anthem, ‘Let’s get this party started,’ each had good air time, my absolute favourite was the talking song –  Baz Luhrman’s ‘Everybody’s free (to wear sunscreen),’ in which there are many phrases that comically were quite fitting for an ocean crossing! ‘Floss…’ ‘Be kind to your knees…’

Second

The ‘La Banque Postale Route du Rhum 2006′ was up next. This had me racing for 23 days single-handed from St. Malo in Northern France > Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.

On this occasion,

1. Lazy Boy’s ‘Underwear goes Inside the Pants‘ (see below) became my most listened to tune, followed by
2. Katie Melua’s ‘Nine Million Bicycles‘ (which I now can’t listen to) +
3. Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean.’

By now I was noticing a trend! What I enjoyed listening to on land was not at all what I wanted to hear at sea! Ambient, background, mellow, classical and jazz were now entirely missing from my most-played, with songs rich in lyrics, songs with built-in stories and spoken songs creeping in, in lieu. Gone were the instruments and in were the people with interesting voices!

Third

During the ‘Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race 2009-10,’ Mick Birchall rowed while I slept and vice versa. As a result, we spoke very little. Our time at sea was – 73 days from La Gomera in the Canary Islands > Antigua in the Caribbean.

Without much more than the occasional encouraging visit from birds, whales, dolphins, fish and boats, what I listened to very closely charts the emotional journey I experienced.

In the first few weeks, I took motivation from Nancy Sinatra’s rendition of ‘You Only Live Twice,’ (1967 James Bond Soundtrack) and the lyrics;

Make one dream come true, you only live twice.

Half way across and at my lowest (hopefully ever), in severe physical pain with tendonitis in both hands and in nearly all fingers, I was cheered along by (dare I say it out loud) ‘Thomas the Tank Engine Night Train!‘ [Please note that this was not some re-connecting with my inner child thing. It was my brother as a little boy, not me who liked Thomas the Tank Engine.]

Later, when my rowing partner and I were struggling to relate to each other, I was reassured by the words from Deborah Cox’s disco (!) anthem, ‘Beautiful U R,’

(CHORUS)
Don’t never let nobody bring you down girl
Don’t never let nobody tear your world apart
Look in the mirror and see who you are
Beautiful U R

Then finally, ‘Freestate‘ by Depeche Mode became my homecoming fave. This was in part due to the rhythm which matched the wallowing shove of the waves and the metronomic forward slide/stroke action of the rowing.

Freedom awaits
Open the gates
Open your mind
Freedom’s a state

Land! People! After 73 days at sea, it was hard to take it all in.

Now I am curious to hear about your experiences! What did you think you would listen to and what did you ultimately end up playing on continuous loop, during the expedition you went on? The race you ran? Drop me a line!

The pull of the ‘Polar World’

Our MA Professional Writing programme recently hosted a lecture by the Canadian author Jean McNeil, on her fellowship experiences in the Arctic, Antarctic, Greenland, Svalbard and Falkland Islands.

During her lecture she made three curious statements:

I’m the kind of writer where my work tracks my life

The world is not what I think, but what I live through.

Character is only action. You really are only what you do.

All images courtesy of Andy Dare Photography

While McNeil showed us a catalogue of alluring slides, throughout her lecture she reiterated ‘but you don’t need to go there.’ This struck me as an odd assertion, considering the majority of the listeners in the lecture theatre are unlikely to go there anyway. Her message was that it is ‘not necessary for inspiration,’ yet I couldn’t help but wonder if this statement wasn’t symptomatic of what Jean herself called Antarcticitis, that she defines in the introduction to her book of poem-sequences ‘Night Orders,’ as a yearning for Antarctica. After all, the special world is only special if few go there.

Do we need to see it, to feel it, to touch it?

Since reading:

• ‘Ice Bird’ by David Lewis, the story of the first single-handed voyage to Antarctica, on my way back across the Atlantic single-handed in 2005,
• ‘Skating to Antarctica’ the part traveler’s tale, part autobiography by Jenny Diski,
• and after meeting Pen Hadow; Pen Hadow’s true life account ‘SOLO: The North Pole alone and unsupported,‘

I have been fascinated by the other worldliness, the special world of the North and South poles – a place often best accessed by boat. I haven’t been there. I haven’t lived through it (yet!) but I am fascinated nonetheless. I feel the pull of the polar world.

The polar regions have something of their own language derived from their international visitors. névé (French) – loose granular ice, stamhuka (Russian) – a thick piece of grounded hummock ice found in sea-ice, hummock ice – a boss or rounded knoll of ice rising above the general level of an ice-field…

Yet both novelist/travel-writers Helen Garner and Jean McNeil felt that language let them down:

“Leaning over the rail I see my first tiny chunk of ice go bobbing past, very close to the ship’s side. At once I’m seized by an urge to compare it with something—with anything; it’s the size of a loosely flexed hand, palm up; like a Disney coronet with knobbed points; as hollow as a rotten tooth… I don’t want to keep going ‘like, like, like’ but I can’t stop myself (p. 13).

Garner, H. (1998). ‘Adrift in the floating world’ from this essay, by Elizabeth Leane.

McNeil ultimately found a way in ‘through people I met, who I was, who I became.’ Similarly, in ‘Skating to Antarctica’ the ice becomes a mirror for Diski’s introspection and reflection.

I find it fascinating that some of us are drawn to the end of the earth and that it is there that we gain greater insight into others. Equally that it is the remote landscapes, deserts and mountains which become the stage for expeditions to explore our own limits, to understand more about ourselves.

In Jean’s word’s (and it was not clear here whether she was talking about acclimatising to Antarctica or acclimatising to the ordinary world after Antarctica);

It creates a powerful new reality of time and space, which is intensely disorientating. It leaves you in exile. It sets you apart.

Perhaps by displacement, away from what McNeil refers to as the ‘trivia, the white noise’ of modern life, we can reach a clarity of mind, a sharpening of the senses and that by adding a dose of the extreme,

the human flame burns brighter.

The 2008 film by Werner Herzog, ‘Encounters at the end of the World,’ of which (aside from the awesome underwater footage) my most striking recollections are of the bizarre: a woman who on an open mike night packs herself into a suitcase and a hippy with a double PhD talking about how happy he is in Antarctica growing hydroponic vegetables.