Tymon Burghy

A writer once said that “Americans think that 100 years is a long time, while the English think that 100 miles is a long way.”

England is considerably smaller than the United States (for my local friends, it is only around 5,000 mi² larger than just the state of Ohio). One benefit of the size that cities are closer together which makes it easier to travel between one place and another. While in Oxfordshire, I discovered a vast system of trails around where I lived that could take me all over the nearby countryside.

In the late winter during my time in Oxford, I was training for the Reading Half Marathon that would take place in a month or so. I would take to the trails nearby and run my plan for the day or even longer if I wanted. The trails were beautiful on some mornings with the greenery frosted over, or in the afternoons they would be slick with mud, coating the backs of my legs and covering my running shoes. But I wouldn’t be turned away by the condition of the trails. I explored enough of the trails around to know which trails got super muddy, which trails flooded, and which trails were well paved (I definitely prefer to run the dirt trails, but when all else failed I would settle for the pavement.) There was a sense of adventure as I turned off of the countryside roads and onto a well-worn dirt trail. Sometimes I discovered some new strange structure, a randomly placed skating ramp, the odd mowed football pitch complete with goal and net, or I found myself connecting to another trail that I did happen to know. Exploring these trails always allowed me to have variety in my runs, taking the odd fork to see where a path went.

When I wasn’t running the trails, I was out for walks with my neighbour, my flat mate, or a local friend I had made from the church down the road. These leisurely walks were something I looked forward through each week, sometimes we would take a trail and neither of us knew exactly where it ended, sometimes we knew where it would end up taking us, sometimes my neighbour would know exactly which trail to take to get us to a pub a few miles away or which path to take to get to a small farm that served tea and cakes in the springtime.

I am a firm believer in the power of time spent in nature. The trails of Oxfordshire not only connected me the area that I called home, but connected me to those around me, allowing me to explore the countryside, build friendships, have spontaneous conversations, go out for tea or a pint, and also stay healthy.