Main image credit: Mike Elm
Happy March to you all – I hope the birds are singing and sun is shining wherever you are! Spring has done some arriving here – I got sunburnt on my amazing but utterly exhausting 36km run on Sunday. I’m sure a last breath of winter might come back before we launch properly into the year, but things are definitely looking brighter.
So, to add to this ‘all change’ vibe, exciting news – the New Story Run re-start is being delayed until 2022! I say exciting because it feels like the right decision, and I am 100% happy with it. Things are definitely looking brighter this year pandemic-wise, but are still very uncertain in terms of international travel (especially the kind where you walk over borders on foot…), and especially for the winter. Instead of watching months go by half-focused on work, half-planning for the run’s re-start, wondering when/if that might be, trying to predict how the winter will unfold in multiple different countries, etc etc, it feels much better to just have a solid 2022 setting-off-again goal, and free myself up to fully commit to ‘life, here, right now’ for the next year!
Adventures 2021
- I hope to be able to carry on working where I am now – at Small World Consulting – for the next year… an awesome small-sized big-impact company helmed by Mike Berners-Lee, working with the likes of Brewdog (bevs), Judes (ice cream) and many others trying to reshape how we do everything so the world will become a better and lower-carbon place.
- Visits to Torbay hooray hooray! Today Mike (Elm, off of the New Story Ride, you’ve probably heard of it) started his new job as Livable Towns Coordinator for Torbay, which is in DEVON. It may feel as far away as Mongolia with the state of the UK’s trains, but lots of microadventures in a new area are calling, facilitated by some remote working weeks that will allow us to visit each other regularly-ish, I hope (I will stay based in the Lake District as I’ll need to go into the office sometimes which is in Lancaster!).
- Lake District mini-adventures: LOTS in the pipeline, e.g.: Bob Graham bivi trip over 3/4 days, Abrahams Tea Round, moving to a new place (potentially my first time living alone, and first time having to find furniture), being based in one place for a whole year which I have not done since I lived in Guyana for 12 months, getting back into climbing, possible Frog Graham round, FELL RACES including the best one – Ennerdale Horseshoe, ticking off all the Wainwrights maybe?, work night bivi trips, etc etc. Follow along on social media to keep up to date on the weekly fun stuff!
- Making the New Story Run even better for setting off again! Practical stuff like figuring out how I’ll survive in extremes such as -40 / + 45 degree temperatures, or with hundreds of km’s between water sources ; plus, ‘purpose’ stuff like questions such as ‘What is really important that the world needs to do?’ ‘How can the New Story Run push for that?’ ‘What makes action actually meaningful and makes a real change?’ ‘How to get people to take action on the climate crisis that actually makes a difference as opposed to passively being inspired?’ and ‘Can the run somehow directly target the big powers in the world who are driving the crisis, and how?’, etc etc… I’m convinced the run will be even better when it does re-start because of this break.
- Writing about more general stuff that will help make the world better, for example an article right now that I’m working on about Periods & Endurance Adventures.
- Summer-holiday sized adventures: Tbc but there are some ideas for a Scottish ‘long run’ of a few weeks… watch this space!
- And much more…
Over the next month or so I’m doing some writing for other platforms, then will be revamping this website a bit to get it up to date. There will also be the occassional ‘New Story’ as there are still a few left to tell from Bulgaria, but they’ll be spread out over the coming months. I will keep you up to date, and as always, thanks for following along and supporting the New Story Run through all the unexpected-ness.
In other news…
The New Story Run film by Guy Loftus is up to 1519 views on Vimeo!
A spell of freezing, dry but very windy weather led to these incredible ice formations by the lake for one day only –
Rosie Watson 