EDITOR’S LETTER

after my mum died. My mind was whirring, but my body was tired and it felt like there was a weight in the centre of my chest – it made me think that the phrase ‘with a heavy heart’ might be literal as well as metaphorical. But it felt good to be outside, listening to birdsong and seeing shafts of sunlight pierce the clouds as I picked my way along a country trail. I entered some woods, which were completely deserted, and stopped. There was something about the sound of the breeze moving through the leaves that was immensely calming. I looked up at the trees, whose lives span centuries, and thought that it’s how they bend with the wind, rather than resist it, that helps them endure. It made me realise what I was feeling at that moment was a painful but necessary part of the grieving process. After 10 minutes, I started running again and finished feeling a little lighter, as if I had temporarily purged some of the heartache from my body.

There’s a uniquely therapeutic aspect to running that makes it hugely valuable at such distressing times and I’m not alone in that belief, judging by the moving accounts of four people in our feature (page 30) who talk candidly about how running helped them get through the loss of a loved one. So while we can’t run away from grief, we can certainly run with it.