just run

'The thoughts that occur to me while I'm running are like clouds in the sky. Clouds of all different sizes. They come and they go, while the sky remains the same sky as always. The clouds are mere guests in the sky that pass away and vanish, leaving behind the sky. The sky both exists and doesn't exist. It has substance and at the same time doesn't. And we merely accept that vast expanse and drink it in.'

HARUKI MURAKAMI - WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING

At the moment, I love my running. And though my long-distance running career is merely embryonic when compared to that of Mr Murakami, the celebrated Japanese writer, I feel much the same about it. I think about very little when I'm running, and maybe that's why I love it so much. It also lends me physical strength and creative energy. My thoughts come and go, like passing clouds in the sky, and I allow them to mix and mesh with each other, without following them too far or thinking too deeply.

For the most part, I'm living in the present moment when I'm running, paying attention to how my body is feeling and just gradually eating up my surroundings. I allow my breathing to set my rhythm, and feel my feet on the ground as I spring off from my big toe with every step. In this sense, the act of running is - for me - almost like a meditative state. It allows me to mindfully exist in the now, to take in my surroundings and to appreciate the subtleties of our lives - the different times of day, the changing seasons of the year, the body's dynamic sensations, my own fluctuating energy levels.

No two runs can ever be quite the same and, indeed, I'd like to vary them as much as possible, by running in every place I travel to. Today it was the surprisingly beautiful War Memorial Park in Coventry; once it was along the wondrous sea shore of Kaikoura on New Zealand's South Island; maybe one day it will be the 62-mile 'ultramarathon' at Lake Saroma in Hokkaido, Japan - just like Mr Murakami himself. Wherever I go, I'd like to keep running.

For me, it's an incentive to stay in shape and to look after myself; it represents a path to mental, as well as physical, well-being; and - perhaps most importantly - it keeps me in touch with the blue sky beyond the clouds.