I have a wonderful client, whom I admire greatly for so many reasons.  She is incredibly savvy from a business perspective, along with the necessary ambition needed to succeed; she is funny, and positive, and as bright as a brand new button.  I am fortunate to now be able to call her my friend, instead of just someone I do some work for.

It is therefore not at all surprising that when she and I were talking about relationships a couple of days ago, over a glass of something delicious of course, I pricked up my ears when she began to give a certain view on matters of the heart.

It seems that for whatever reason, one person is almost always more interested in the relationship than the other.  Heaven knows why, but if you look around at things and go to the movies or listen to song lyrics, it seems this is a universal pandemic.  It seems too, that it is easier when it is you that is less likely to get hurt, but then there is the corresponding guilt, which is not fabulous.

My client made a comment that really struck home.  She said, quite simply - "you know, not every race has to be the Comrades".  I asked her to elaborate.  As I was now on glass two, I thought I was at that stage of the evening where I become super bright and exceptionally sharp, but I was also quick enough to ask her to explain herself before I gave her my convoluted version of the statement.

She said, "I mean, not every man we date has to be "the one".  There will one, possibly two, maybe even three men who may be "the one", but the rest are not even close to this, but that doesn't mean they need to be written off immediately.  They may add things to your life for a portion of time, until they don't.  Those are the 5, 10 or 15 kilometre runs.  They are not the Comrades.  But when you train for the Comrades, you can't do it unless you have completed those 15 kilometre runs.  And sometimes you do the Comrades, then you finish that race, and you run shorter distances for the rest of your life.  You see, not every race has to be the Comrades".

"Wow, this wine really is making you clever", I replied to her.

We chatted about this issue with amazing clarity, and we both felt sure at the end of the bottle, that we had it all worked out.

In our lives, it is so true that some races will be long, some will be short; some will have a lot of uphills, some will have a lot of corners; some will have the odd vicious dog that runs out and tries to bite you as you beetle past; some will be the Comrades, some, will not.

In my life, I am proud to say I have run the Comrades more than once.  I have done one down run, and one up run.  I think I am done.  But... I am very happy, for now, to run some short races, and whilst I run, I will be trying avidly to avoid any of those so-called vicious dogs.