ten-tacling

Tentacling Prologue - I am picking this blog back up now in February 2023, I had started writing this in march 2020, when the world was about to change forever, not just for me, but; for everyone 2020 was a shit year all plans thrown out the window, my year was better than most peoples, I was at that time an essential worker, so; I still had a social life, (work) my cape wrath journey and life have taken a dramatic turn in these nearly three years since the start of this blog, my life is nothing at all like it was then, and neither is the world, my life has changed for the better - some would disagree with that! But the world has changed for the worst and going to get much worse rapidly sadly, this was supposed to be a fun numbered daily blog about running and my running journey, posting for 90 days pre CWUltra, 2020 was a fail let’s see if I can make it work for 2023 now? what is tentacling? According to the dictionary a tentacle is a slender, flexible limb or appendage in an animal, especially around the mouth of an invertebrate, used for grasping or moving about, or bearing sense organs, something that resembles a tentacle especially in or as if in grasping or feeling out, there are plenty examples of the word being used to indicate corruption for example The corporation's tentacles are felt in every sector of the industry!, just putting it out there, but; I love octopuses there’s an online petition to sign to stop some sick squid (pun intended slippery twat a horrible human) from starting octopus farms for food! This is so wrong “IMO” watch some beautiful films about these creatures

So; what’s that word got to do with running? American ultrarunner Rickey Gates was the first person I read had done what was then a truly unique adventure. Gates ran every single street in the city of San Francisco, some multiple times. In total, Gates logged over 1,300 miles and 147,000 feet of elevation over 46 days, Gates didn’t come up with the “every single street” idea, a concept that’s been floating around for years in various forms, but his rendition was far bigger and bolder than those before it. Its an incredible feat of endurance —especially in such a famously hilly city like San Francisco— To finish by when he did, Gates averaged around 30 miles a day for a month, he slept in a van parked where he finished that night so he could start, Gates doesn’t have plans for a similar endeavour, though Venice is intriguing, he said. He says he’s excited and ready to promote the concept to others. Walking the streets, sticking to just your neighbourhood, taking as long as you need to finish, he endorses it all. It’s super fun, really eye opening, and it’s expanded what I believe is adventure running, he said; It certainly inspired me Rickey, I ran all the streets of my town in June 2019 while in training for the doomed 2020 cape wrath ultra, it was fun well mostly! I never realised just how many cul de sacks and dead ends there were, and also if your thinking of doing it, remember to pick left and right routes as I seemed to spend too much time turning right into roads strangely? We all think that we know our towns, our neighbourhoods, but I will guarantee there’s a couple of local streets you’ve never been on. It provides its own mountaintop to get to and come back down, and it’s right there, from your doorstep I enjoyed it so much that I also done the same thing in the town of brae in Shetland when I was still working there, I would reckon I am the only person to ever do all of my town, can’t; be certain about brae though as it’s not large, someone has now done all of Glasgow which impressed me! I still regularly go around housing estates I`ve never been down before - just to add a tentacle into my neighbouring towns and villages, it looks great on strava heat maps