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Kathleen McGurl

~ Where past and present collide…

Kathleen McGurl

Tag Archives: Running

Just call me superwoman…

30 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by kathmcgurl in Blogging

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

bournemouth, Running, swimming, time, Writing

Life has been SO busy lately. If we’re Facebook friends you probably know about my husband’s cycling accident, 6 weeks ago. He crashed on a slippery road coming downhill, and broke his hip and wrist. His hip was operated on the next day to pin it, and the day after that he was on his feet on crutches. He’s making a good recovery, though still has to use the crutches for a few weeks yet. So I am having to do a lot extra in the home – all the cooking and cleaning instead of sharing it, all the driving around, shopping, taking him indoors to physio appointments etc.

The day job has been manic lately. I won’t bore you with the details but I’m definitely being pulled every which way and then some. Could do with cloning myself to get it all done.

I’m over the moon at having a two book deal – it’s what I’ve worked towards for ten years. But with contracts come deadlines, and the pressure’s on to get book 1 revised and back to my editor, also to get the first draft of book 2 completed. Both are on target, just about.

With the pier-to-pier swim completed that means no need for swimming training, but him indoors has discovered that a short swim in the sea is really helping his recovery. He hobbles in on crutches, then I take the crutches and leave them on the beach, then swim with him, then help him out of the water at the end. On beautiful Bournemouth beach and in weather like we’ve had, this is no hardship so I’m not complaining. But it’s all time out of my busy day.

Earlier this year I signed up for the Bournemouth half-marathon, which is in early October. So I need to pick up my running – get out there and start building up the distance. I’m so slow a 10km run takes me nearly an hour and a half.

And then today I realised that I have to do the ‘blue’ jobs as well as the ‘pink’ jobs. A U-bend under the in-sink disposal unit (aka the muncher) clogged up. I have never, repeat never, unblocked a U-bend in my life before today. (I have led a sheltered life and there has always been someone around with greater plumbing skills than me.) But I managed it, and then did a silly dance around the house because it is now official – I AM SUPERWOMAN and I can do ANYTHING!

Ahem. All this is really just a long-winded excuse for the lack of blog posts lately.

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The perfect running route

23 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by kathmcgurl in Running, Writing

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Hengistbury Head, Running, Writing

Tomorrow’s Sunday, and in the morning I will go for my weekly run. Dodgy knees allowing, I’ll probably do my favourite 12.5km (8 mile) run.

I start from home, turn left down the road and onto the cliff-top. I then head eastwards towards Hengistbury Head, staying on the cliff-top path until it runs out, then a little bit of road-running before I cut across the open land on a sandy path, then a board walk, and then towards Hengistbury Head itself (see photo). 

042

The path then joins one of the main tarmac routes over the Head. I loop round through the woods, round the back of a golf course, and return home via the prom.

Last week while running this route I was thinking that this run has all the elements of a well-written novel.

During this route I run on all sorts of surfaces: tarmac, firm mud path, gravel track, sand, boardwalk. Each surface gives a different feel to the running – rather like a good novelist employs varied pace at different points in the narrative.

There’s a lot of different and wonderful scenery, from the broad expansive seascapes to the closed in woodland. I run past a field which sometimes houses rare breeds cattle, past a golf course, past some residential houses. On the way out I’m looking towards the Isle of Wight and on the way back, Purbeck. It’s never a boring run – there is always something different to look at. Just as great novels need different settings to keep a reader’s interest.

If you look at the photo you can probably see a tarmac path going up the hill. I start off going up that, then turn off to the left on a mud path which is less well trodden. With some novels you think you know where it’s going and what will happen, and then it veers off in a new, unexpected and much more interesting direction.

This path leads into some dark, tangled woodland. At almost half way I pass a point where once I came across police investigating a body that had been found in the woods (tragically, a suicide). Throwing in some surprise and intrigue at the half way point does no novel any harm.

Then the path leads me out of the woods and onto the high ground covered with heather and gorse at the end of the headland. The path keeps leading forward but you can see there’s soon no more land, nowhere to go, and it must turn back. Novels, too, reach a point where the narrative needs to begin to resolve itself.

My run comes down some steps to sea level, and takes a sharp left on a tarmac path through woods. There are always a lot of people here, walking dogs, cycling, pushing prams. And the occasional land train comes motoring along. I cut off this main path back onto a mud track through woods where I’m usually once more alone. Novels sometimes lull you into a false sense of security by putting the main character in a safe place, surrounded by other people, before once more sending them off on their own again.

Then it’s past the half-built visitors’ centre, past the outdoor pursuits centre and along a gravel track behind a golf course. High hedges mean you can’t see much other than your next few steps and there is only one direction to go in. The novel rushes on, the narrative moving relentlessly forward, towards a conclusion which is now inevitable.

Finally I come out in the open, back to the prom and home. It’s a longish stretch on the prom – I can see the end of the run from a way out, and enjoy the view across Purbeck and the feeling of a good run finished. This is a novel with a leisurely, drawn out ending where we see the characters settling down into their post-novel lives, all loose ends tied, all sub-plots nicely completed. I end up back where I started, but with a different view (westwards rather than eastwards) and with tired, satisfied legs.

I’m not sure whether this post has worked – it all sounded more sensible in my head while I was running, than it did just now trying to write it up. Ah well. If you’ve followed my womagwriter blog for a while you’ll know I’ve a habit of coming up with tortured analogies such as when I likened writing to the Tour de France.

(Incidently if you’re a Mapometer user here’s my route. I think you may need a Mapometer account (free) to be able to click this link. It’s a great tool for mapping routes, working out distances and saving or sharing them for future use.)

A storm is coming

27 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by kathmcgurl in Blogging, Running, Writing

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Running, storm, Writing

There’s a storm warning in place for the south of England – overnight tonight we will be battered by 80mph winds and lashed by rain, several inches are due to fall. We’re on amber alert. The wind has already picked up, but it was fine this morning so I went out for a run.

And what a run it was! One of my most exhilarating ever. I ran 4km along the Bournemouth cliff top, westwards against the wind. This was very hard work. Then turned around at the pier, and ran 4km eastwards with the wind at my back, along the prom. This part felt like flying!

2013-10-27 11.28.02

The wind was whipping up the sea into a frenzy, and also creating sandstorms along the beach. My back got sand-blasted. After the run I came back down to the beach to try to capture the drama but with only a phone camera it’s hard to do it justice.

I experienced a real runner’s high on the last few km. It was incredible.

And now this afternoon I’m aiming for a writer’s high. You know that feeling, when it’s all going so well, the story is playing out like a film script in your head and all you need do is take dictation from your characters? I’m hoping that will happen today. I was stuck on a scene but in the middle of the night realised that the answer is to write it in a different character’s viewpoint. I’m looking forward to getting inside her head.

 

Marathon

06 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by kathmcgurl in Blogging

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Running, Writing

Today is my birthday, and it seems as good a day as any to get this new blog started. I began blogging back in 2007 over on womagwriter but that blog has always stayed reasonably tightly focussed on writing fiction for women’s magazines. These days I write novels, so it’s time to start a new blog, about me, my life and my writing.

It was the first ever official Bournemouth marathon today, and they had glorious weather for it, although I suspect the participants found it a little too warm. We went to see the start, then I went to the cliff top and watched the faster runners go by, then I went down on the prom and sat on a bench, clapping for an hour or so as the whole field passed. The plan is (and if I put it in writing I’ll have to do it!) to enter the half-marathon next year.

2013-10-06 11.01.16

The photo shows some of the front runners on the overcliff, passing the end of our road.

Writing a novel is a bit like running a marathon. At the beginning it all seems so daunting – all that distance to cover, all those words to get on a page. But all you have to do is start – put one foot in front of the other, one word after another and eventually you’ll reach the end. (A little training, or practice writing, helps, of course!) Every journey starts with a single step, and every writing project starts with a single word.

I’m now in training for next year’s half-marathon. And with this post, I’ve kicked off this new blog. Wish me luck for both!

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