Play.

How old are you? No, seriously. How old are you?

When was the last time you played?
I don’t mean just a video game, or a football match. They’re way too organised to be called play.

Look at a 3 year old. They find it hilarious to sit in a card board box. Who knows what’s going on in their heads?
It’s probably not “I should definitely be playing right now. Lets see how long I can play for and see if I can beat my playing time from yesterday.”

This past weekend I realised something. I was running through a field to grab something from a tent. Pretty mundane. I hadn’t gone out for a run. I only had normal trainers on, nothing fancy and the field itself was nothing special. It had a slight slope down to the tents and a little path mown into the grass that ever so slightly wiggled its way into the centre of a ring of light coloured bell tents.

I felt like a 3 year old.

I think I might have even looked like one, arms flailing, legs flopping around hitting the ground one after another. It might have been because I was on a farm, or surrounded by these people, but it was a simple feeling of freedom.

I proceeded to mostly run up and down that little patch of grass whenever I needed to get something from my tent for the rest of the weekend, with a few exceptions. I’d pass people, and the exchange went something like this..

Them: out for a run?
Me: yeah, just decided to run up and down

At that point I hadn’t really realised how much fun I was having during those little moments.

I should provide a bit of background information to this. I have done a little running in the past, including completing the Marathon des Sables in 2013.

But I also haven’t run much this year. At the moment that’s because I have a lovely new baby daughter who now takes up most of the time, but before that I think I’d descended into a little bit of a running rut. Running to train for so long before meant that I’d forgotten how to run without that end goal.

From this point on, i’m not going to care about how far, long, or hard I run. I’m going to play.

Why not have a little look at yourself in a mirror and ask yourself are you having fun? When should you be playing instead of going through the motions?