083: Risk, disappointment, and goals for 2025.

Recorded: December 10th, Melbourne.

I look around and I see a man out the front of the cafe in a pair of high-mileage running shoes and I think to myself “I wonder if he runs.” I walk the same street most mornings, always passing the same Mulberry tree to see if there are any ripe berries for me to pick. I smile at the woman who walks past it at the same time and say “We need to get a ladder, all the good ones are at the top.” It makes me think of the wild blackberries in Portugal and Tasmania and how they’re the perfect ‘pick-me-up’ when I’m on a long run. I put my music in and debate with myself if I should listen to the world around me or to a curated “chill-house-cloudy-morning” playlist. I conclude there is no right answer, there never really is. Most of the time, I’m out walking in my running shoes. If my shoes had feelings, I’m sure they’d smile when I went running I take them running. What about the days when running shoes were called “Sand shoes” or “Sneakers” or “Tennis shoes”? I never played tennis in my running shoes but now that I don’t own tennis shoes, I suppose I’d have no other choice. Shredding the sole and tipping my tendons onto the edge of oblivion.

Every-time I see another runner across the street, I smile. I love to see people embrace an activity and a practice that I enjoy so much. I am so curious what there routine was before they left the house and what they said to their partner, house-mate, or pet when they returned home.

A lot to think about and not much at all.

Guest:

Joe Westood

Poem: "Results aren’t everything, indeed they’d better not be because results always come later - and later is always too late."