Nick's Jog Blog: My Missionless Mission

I’ve written a blog twice before. The first, was when myself, Joel Craddock and Ben Maddern ran 900kms from Melbourne to Sydney in 2011. The second, was when Joel and Ben ran from Sydney and ended up over 500kms further along the Pacific Hwy ten days later. For some reason the lazy sods decided they couldn’t write their own, and thought the most logical solution was to ask me to write it from the other side of the world in Canada, with a 14 hour time difference to publish it daily for their followers. Perhaps the crazier notion was that I actually said yes.

This led me to some thinking-that perhaps I actually enjoy writing a blog. Well of course I knew that. But my first experience was spent typing one up each night after spending the day on my feet covering a marathon distance, and in the back of a caravan (RIP Ruby!) with up to seven people trying to sleep and with patchy internet coverage, knowing that I needed to get up at the crack of dawn to run another marathon again…needless to say, sometimes it was a taxing experience.

The second experience was in July this year, and being the Canadian summer, this was the peak season for my landscaping job, labouring away sometimes up to 15 hours a day. Due to time zone differences, I would have to wake up at 5:30am to speak to Ben and Joel at the end of their day, get some information, and then spend generally 10-13 hours at work. Once home, I would retrieve the messages the boys would have left during the day, and work their five huffy-puffy sentences into some miraculous piece of Blog genius before heading to bed after midnight and repeating the process for ten days. Making matters worse was the fact I did not technically have Internet access during this time and would have to “borrow” it from the next door neighbour. This was quite awkward considering we did not share a fence with the neighbour and the one spot in the backyard I could get Wifi was right on the property line in direct vision of their kitchen window. Each night I would go to this spot and do fake Yoga poses or pretend to be so fascinated by their nearby Cedar Tree or bird bath while secretly posting the blog on my phone or laptop and just hoped they didn’t wonder why I always had to do it so close to them, considering I had a whole quarter acre backyard of my own to play in. Even more awkward when I’d be out there each morning on the phone to the boys having to whisper, trying not to wake them. Nothing says “I’m stealing your internet” better than spending an hour someone’s backyard trying to hide behind a 4 ft tree with a laptop and talking on the phone at 5:30am each morning when there’s your own perfectly good house and backyard beside you. Subtle it was not, taxing (once again) it was.
I was gearing up to write another blog, again with the boys, when we were to cross the length of Australia from Perth to Sydney on bikes next July. The idea had been born shortly after Run for a Reason, and although lay dormant for some time, slowly built momentum this year. Long story short, after some serious thinking, we all mutually decided that taking 5 to 7 weeks off for the ride, plus training time (and costs) next year just wasn’t suitable for any of us, although we are currently brainstorming a few ideas about a less time consuming, but equally as challenging replacement goal.

So, like a pilot without a plane, or like a man who’s lost his keys, I was looking for something. It was actually my keys I was looking for, but after a frustrating morning I finally found them behind the couch and then while driving that morning I continued thinking…I want to write a blog. Which was kind of a weird…I don’t particularly like talking about myself, and I am most certainly not one of “those people” who posts a picture of their meal on Facebook. (I mean, half the time it’s a simple chicken and rice dish-you’re not bloody Jamie Oliver, people).

I considered waiting until we had another adventure planned, but since we don’t, I said to myself: “why not just write one about all my running adventures?”
To which I answered: “Yeah why not?”
Me: “Well not all of them, especially not the ones on a treadmill-that’d be bloody boring”
Me: “Yeah and we don't run on a treadmill anyway. How about more of my thoughts on related topics and chuck in a few pictures?”
Me: “Sounds good, I like pictures”
Me: “So do I!”
Me: “Obviously…we are the same person you knucklehead”.
Me: “Ha. Oh yeah. I’m hungry…can you get me something from the fridge?”
Me: “We are the same person, why don’t you get something”
Me: “Ha. Oh yeah, sorry mate, let’s go cook something, then we’ll post it on Facebook”
Me: “No”

Then after going to the fridge for an almost-worthy-of-Facebook-upload snack, I decided that it was settled. I’d create a blog…but about what and why?

What: My musings, experiences, thoughts, ramblings and pictures, specifically from my running self and outdoor adventures. Not about one particular event like in the past but just in daily adventure life, but in the same light hearted fashion as the past blogs.

Why: Self-satisfaction. I am not going to necessarily promote this like the past blogs (mainly because there is no charity involved), but welcome anyone who would like to read it, subscribe to it, share it with friends, give me feedback or whatever they please. There had to be at least, oh, 4 people who enjoyed the past blogs, so if this one is one quarter as successful and enjoyable that’s fine by me.

That’s literally it. Here we are at Blog 3…about running life in general. I mean, I might go for a bike ride or a hike and say something about it, but I’m sure that won’t offend anyone. And if it does, the best part is-you don’t have to read it! If it doesn’t tickle your funny bits, just click that red X up in the top right of screen and you’re golden. In the rare, idiotic and environmentally unfriendly case that you have already printed this page off, the ol’ red X trick won’t work but crumpling the paper up is your best bet, or better yet, make a pirate hat with it (but make sure you recycle afterwards). The enjoyable part for me is that I will not be doing it in the most brain-frying of situations, and if I want to post, I will post...if not, I won't. They might come at you thick and fast daily, or weekly, or even monthly. This train is going at my pace, and buggered if I know what that pace is-all I know, is that Blogman has a blog again :)

After today, you can expect to see posts about more interesting subject matter, rather than just the background to why I wanted to do this and why I don’t like Ray Hadley (oh wait, that’s for a different time) . Although since this is my first entry, it is by default, the most exciting, daring, sexy and intriguing entry already-and with the bar set that low, I promise that will change.