Marshall is getting better at grabbing things. He can see something, recognize that it is interesting, reach his arms out, hook his fingers around it, bring it up to his mouth, and taste it. That might sound pretty simple, but watching the slow process of getting to this point and observing his shaking arms trying to locate objects (usually his caterpillar toy), I feel like I can see each neuron firing as his muscles, tendons, joints, nerves, etc are learning how to work together to accomplish this feat.
I take for granted the ability to run, to move through rocky, steep terrain, without really having a conscious thought about it. At some point that I don’t remember anymore, those steps were new and difficult. We become better at what we repeat, and we build muscle memory that allows our brains to focus on other tasks while we mindlessly go through the motions. Usually, that’s great. If I had to think hard about every step, I wouldn’t be a very good trail runner. But it also causes routine and boredom and a lack of appreciation for simple motions.
There’s a lot I’d like to write about right now. We finished off the Chamonix chapter of our Europe adventure. Maybe the highlight was managing to fit in two back-to-back Mont Blanc summits with good friends from Utah on perfect, sunny mornings. Now we’ve moved a couple valleys over, to a quiet little mountain town called Arêches near Beaufort, France. After just about a week here, I’m already feeling like there’s a fine line between a paradise and a prison.
The town is home to endurance legends like Francios D’haene and (much of the year) Jim Walmsley, and is in a cirque surrounded by thousands of feet of beautiful mountains in every direction. Basically, it’s a trail runner’s playground. Waterfalls, flocks of sheep, alpine ridge lines, and seemingly unlimited combinations of ways to link together epic routes. However, there’s not much else. If you’re healthy, training, and into trails (or skiing in winter), it is a paradise. If any of those are not true, I could imagine going stir-crazy.
I’ve had the chance to connect with Jim for many of my runs out here and it has been really cool getting to know him better. I love hearing about the decision process to move here and the tradeoffs you have to make. It seems wild to me that as an American, if I really wanted to and Morgan was on board, we could actually just move our life to a place like this. In many ways, it feels like a purer, simpler, more natural way for humans to live, and makes the thought of Utah’s traffic, fast food chains, and Amazon overnight delivery seem dystopian. I get the impression that Jim’s more of a private guy and I want to respect that so I won’t go into much detail, but this is a special opportunity for me to learn from the best and I’m very excited to be racing Worlds together in a couple of weeks.
To connect this back a bit, these past couple of weeks in France have been good for getting me out of my routine. A plan and schedule are helpful sometimes, but had me feeling like things were stale. I needed a shake-up and I got one. That comes with positives and negatives. The pros are currently far outweighing the cons and I love that running is enabling me to have these sorts of experiences. I’m not relearning hand-eye coordination or anything, but I am getting a new perspective and enjoying the journey.
Cool to hear about you and Jim training together. See if you can talk him into Substack :)
I suppose they'd want us to have "jobs" in "France" to move to Chamonix. Aside from that small detail, sounds like something my wife and I would be into.