Time for thinking in an alien landscape

RED January
DAY 2: 6k (3.7m)

ALIEN LANDSCAPE: Frost on a cold car roof.

FLOATING lights, shadowy figures and the panting of invisible dogs.

These were some of the delights encountered on my second walk for RED January, the campaign to get people active and raise funds for Mind, the mental health charity.

MYSTERIOUS SHADOWS: Sculpture in the park.

I decided this morning to follow my usual parkrun course in Coventry’s War Memorial Park.

It was a strange experience. I’m usually either running around the route or marshalling on it. As I passed each marshal location in darkness – it was around 6.30am – I could imagine people there, like ghostly figures in some flickering old movie.

There were plenty of dog walkers. Some, along with their dogs, wore ‘safety lights’ for visibility: white, green, red, yellow.

From a distance, you could see neither people nor animals – just the coloured lights, appearing to float mysteriously in the air, moving in sometimes calm, sometimes erratic ways.

As you drew closer, there were chirpy ‘Good Morning, Happy New Year’ greetings, but they emanated from the looming shapes. There were still no faces visible. And then they were gone; brief encounters with shadows in the night.

TO THE FALLEN: Part of the Beech
 Leaves sculpture in the Coventry park.

Occasionally, the dogs would run ahead of their owners, or follow other walkers for a short distance, still barely visible, but filling the air with their excitable, disembodied panting. (Or was that just me?).

Later, one or two runners entered the scene, the steady soft rhythm of their steps heralding their approach, before fading again as they passed and disappeared back into the twilight surroundings.

Darkness turns the familiar into an alien, sometimes eerie and unsettling, landscape – yet there’s also something comforting and magical about it. The thin blanket of this morning’s sparkling frost added to the effect.

As I offered a cheery ‘good morning’ to one walker, she replied: ‘Sorry, I was deep in thought.’

Her comment raised a good point.

For many, running or walking can be, as one runner put it, their ‘secret weapon’ beyond simply physical health and wellness.

You can clear your head, sort out ideas, work on problems, make plans.

TWILIGHT ZONE: Memorial in early morning
light at Coventry War Memorial park.

The steady, natural, rhythm of your body as you move forward seems to assist the process, as if you’ve been transported into some sort of meditative state.

Your mind can wander wherever it likes, of course, with no particular direction or coherence. It can simply 'roam!'

Wherever your thoughts go, the darkness enhances the experience.

You can, almost literally, shut off from the familiar, everyday world and, for a short while at least, enjoy some quiet ‘me time,’ with no additional demands, lost in your own musings, completely free from other distractions – apart, that is, from looming shadowy figures and the occasional playful canine!

FUND NOTE: If you would like to donate to Mind, you can access my JustGiving page here.

Thank you.

QUIET SEAT: Bench under the lamp-light.

NIGHT LIGHT: Above and below - Visitor Centre at Coventry War Memorial Park.

RED JANUARY: Sun rises on a new day.