When I was little I had an atlas of the world. I’d spend hours looking at it, memorising capital cities, tracing countries. It was a child’s atlas and alongside all the different continents and countries it has facts and information about them. One of the pictures I was fascinated by was of Uluru in Australia. It seemed to glow bright red like it had a lightbulb inside it.

I’ve travelled round a lot of nice places: Cuba, India, Thailand, Morocco, and had some great adventures but I’ve not yet made it to that big red rock in the Outback.

I don’t know why, for as long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn to travel to Australia. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s pretty much as far away from my home in the UK as you can get or maybe it’s the picture in my old atlas. But I’ve still not made it there.

Right about now, though, as this post publishes I’m on a plane that will take me to Sydney, Australia. I’m going by myself to travel round for a few months and, although this scares me, I’m also excited. If there’s one thing that I’ve learnt from running over the past couple of years it’s that you can do more than you ever thought possible. That you have the potential to be physically and mentally stronger than you realise, and that hard work pays off.

I’ve also been lucky enough to have friends and family who support me when I say things like ‘I’m going to run a marathon’ or ‘I’m going to go to the other side of the world by myself’ and say things like ‘that sounds fun’ rather than ‘do you think that’s a good idea’. So thanks to them, because not everyone has that. 

A few years ago the idea of running a marathon was completely alien to me. It seemed like a superhuman feat and something that I could never do. Likewise the sort of people who could pick up a rucksack and head off by themselves to the other side of the world going wherever their fancy took them wasn’t the sort of person that I could ever see myself being. But we can be whoever we choose to be. So I have chosen to be a marathon runner and an intrepid traveller and that’s who I am. Rest assured, I have my running shoes with me, I’ll be running while I’m away and I will be back.

I’ve read this post by another running blogger written on the eve of their first 100 mile race a few times in the past few months. I like it and I think you should all read it.