“Why in the world are we here?
Surely not to live in pain and fear?
Why on earth are you there?
You’re everywhere, come and get your share
Well, we all shine on
With the moon and the stars and the sun
Well, we all shine on
Everyone, come on, yeah”
John Lennon
There are many things that I do not like. There are many things that I do not like at all. And then there are a few things that I do not like at all at all. Those things would be Zoom calls, especially Zoom calls with multiple participants, other people’s body fluids, and motivational/instructional talks. I knew our trip to Arosa was going to be different from all other trips my Soulmate and I have ever been on, when , a week before our departure , we took part in a Zoom call , with multiple participants, featuring motivational and instructional talks…and someone’s body fluids.
We had been on a few trips with a … I was going to say ‘group’ , but they, or we, as my Soulmate and I are certainly part of it, are more than simply a group. It’s hard to explain. At times we seem to be like The Magnificent Seven, all slightly broken in some way, but united in a cause, or The Travelling Willburys or Boy Genius, individuals that are content doing their own thing, but join together occasionally to make something wonderful and have fun doing it, or The Goonies, a bunch of people that wouldn’t have chosen each other, but are thrown together by circumstance and have a great adventure. But I think what we are is a fellowship, but instead of like in Lord of The Rings, we’re all Smurfs.
The name of the fellowship is The Good Glow, which started as a podcast by the force of nature that is Georgie Crawford.
We have been to New York with them in 2024 to run the half marathon , to Arosa in January 2025 to run an almost half marathon, to Killarney to run a half marathon, and to Glendalough to run an ultra. Each trip was wonderful, each one was entirely different, and each one changed us somehow. We enjoyed each and every single one of them, and yet we decided that , having run in New York, and Killarney, and loved every moment that we shouldn’t repeat them , for fear that it wouldn’t be as good, and that disappointment may tarnish the memory of the first time. Immediately after our trip to Arosa last year, which was magical, we said the same thing. And yet , when the email arrived from Georgie and her sidekick, Jamie, announcing the trip to Arosa 2026, we both said that we had to go back.
So, that’s how, at 7pm on Friday, January 2 we were sitting on our sofa logging into a Zoom call with 50 or so other people listening to Jamie and Georgie run through final preparations for our trip to Arosa last weekend. For the first 40 minutes or so it was the usual reminder of things that I had forgotten as soon as they’d said them, and hoped that Eileen had taken note, some positive things to assuage any fears from Georgie and threats from Jamie about something or other. There were some messages being WhatsApped privately as we spotted, and were spotted by, friends from previous trips, and quirky statements on the Zoom calls message board, which were all engaging and distracting , when it happened. Jamie had been talking about the importance of hydration and held up an example, in a little jar , of what your wee should look like of you were hydrating properly , which looked like a watery Club Lemon, and then another slightly bigger jar of what looked like slightly diluted Lucozade. Eileen and I looked at each other, and then I typed urgently into the message board, “Please tell me those samples aren’t real ???”. On the screen I could see Georgie in her tiny window start to laugh, but did not confirm or deny…
This trip was going to be different.
A few days before we were due to head away people were messaging about final preparations, runs they were doing, questions about equipment etc…and I mentioned that my training had been interrupted by a ‘cold’. I immediately received several messages of concern and good wishes from people I had yet to meet in real life, and several private messages from friends we’d made on previous trips offering wishing me well. One person whom Eileen and I have previously considered adopting, even though she has children of her own, offered to arrange a free hotel room for us on the night before our flight out to Arosa in order to break up our journey and have some rest. And another person, whom Eileen and I have considered taking barring orders out against, left me several voice messages detailing his own battles with the cold and suggested remedies. He also checked in with Eileen to see how I was.
See what I mean ? A fellowship.
The evening before we flew, and following our comrade’s suggested remedy, I was busy chopping up cloves of garlic and swallowing them with water. I went to bed early and did indeed feel better. Eileen said that when she decided to follow me to bed that she hadn’t reached the second step on the stairs before my garlic breath punched her on the nose. She has always been a fan of CSI and Silent Witness, so she dabbed some Vicks Vapour Rub on her upper lip to mask the smell.
We were both awake before our 3am alarms, giddy with excitement, and were up , out and on the road by 3.30am. In the airport we hadn’t even checked our bags in before we met Ciara and Michael, whom we’d met and had dinner with last year. Immediately it felt like the band was getting back together. We were all wearing our ‘Arosa 26’ hoodies so even if we’d never met in real life we all started saying ‘Hello’ and wishing each other well. Before we’d got to the gate we’d already had hugs from the Donegal Mafia, Eugene, Annette, Avril and Teresa, and later as we were chatting to some new people Victoria ran towards me and lifted me off my feet with the best hug of the day.
We hadn’t even left Dublin airport and we were already having a great time.
There were 100 people travelling together in our fellowship, most of whom had never met each other before and yet I think that by the time our plane landed in Zurich almost everyone had at least said ‘Hello’ to each other, or at the very least smiled in each other’s direction and nodded.
On landing , in much the same as Gandalf transforms from the easy going Gandalf the Grey into Gandalf the White , the more powerful authoritarian super being, Jamie transformed from a regular, one of the gang Smurf, into Papa Smurf, and started corralling us up walkways , down escalators, and onto the first of our three trains. Whenever he let his guard down , his erstwhile companion, Georgie, would lead us onto the wrong platform/train/carriage. It’s not easy being Papa Smurf. We all made it onto our final train from Chur to Arosa which weaved its way through Christmas card and chocolate box cover scenes of snow covered mountains until we arrived in Arosa.
Arosa is a small Swiss town and one of the lesser known Winter and Summer resorts. Oddly it was here that Sir Athur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels, first tried skiing, and when he wrote about it in 1895 kicked off English interest in skiing holidays. Erwin Schrodinger spent Christmas here in 1925 and had some hazy ideas about wave mechanics, which were later cleared up when he visited Monaghan and met my Granda in what is now The Squealing Pig, and they discussed the kitten that Granda had bought for Granny as an apology for the last time he was in The Squealing Pig…true story.
Anyway, Arosa must be just a little too far from Zurich for most skiers, as it’s much quieter than it should be , based on just how gorgeous, picturesque , and cool it is. But maybe that’s why we like it. It’s a Goldilocks place, not too busy, not too quiet, just right.
Papa Smurf had organised two vans to collect all of our bags and we tramped our way through the falling snow to our hotel, the Alpine Arosa. We were all checked in quite quickly and were told to meet downstairs at 6.30pm , before our dinner at 7pm, for a ‘surprise’. We went to our room and went to bed for an hour or so.
There was a drinks reception for us at 6.30pm and then we were ushered into the hotel’s theatre where the surprise was revealed, the Lichenstein Pan Pipenflggenhaffen Band were going to perform a few tunes for us. The band was led by one of the main organisers of the run we were taking part in the following day, and wanted to thank us all for coming. If I’m honest, I’d have been happier with a Toblerone, but we all went with the flow. Listening to our fellowship sing along to a 13 piece pan pipe band toot out ‘Country Roads’ will live long in my memory…unfortunately. Although I did get a lift when I saw that Jamie knew all the words to ‘Country Roads’ and sang them with more enthusiasm than I would have figured. My disappointment at not getting a Toblerone was further compounded by the band leader saying “ And now we have a song from Ireland…. “ but didn’t say that it was H.O.O.D by Kneecap, it was something about a bluetit in Avondale or Dartry, or something. We gave them a standing ovation nonetheless.
Eileen and I sat with Ciara and Michael and simply carried on our chat from last year as if it had only been the previous weekend. We are all very comfy in each other’s company. The food was exceptional, and we finished up with a few words of encouragement from both Jamie and Georgie. They spoke of completely different things. Jamie told us to stop during the next mornings run and look around and appreciate where you were 2,200m above sea level, in the snow and when running through the forest to inhale deeply of the tree pheromones. He didn’t call them tree pheromones, he called them phytoncides, which are emitted by conifer trees to protect themselves, and seem to lift peoples moods. It always lifts my mood when Jamie tries to explain this scientifically to a room full of people when I’ve told him that I’m going to shout out “Humbug !” as soon as he does.
Georgie said that everyone was here for a different reason, and that if anyone was carrying a worry or stress, that tomorrow would be a great opportunity to ‘leave it on the mountain’.
We all went to bed early and each prepared in their own way for a 10 mile run up a mountain in the snow. I slept so soundly that I didn’t hear the boom at 2.00am from the avalanche, whereas I normally wake if I hear our cat, Tuna, hop onto the kitchen table downstairs in the middle of the night.
On the morning of a long run , you should eat a high carbohydrate breakfast, which has moderate protein, low fibre, and low fats. I had a bowl of Sugar Puffs and two pancakes smothered in Nutella, and a coffee. After breakfast we all met downstairs and got our race numbers and then we headed to the starting line. It was a 15 minute walk to the local conference centre where we could leave our jackets and get ready. Eileen and I held hands as we crossed the main road over to the start, where a jazz band were playing to distract us from our nerves. Eileen was explaining to some of the new girls what being here meant to her and got emotional. The girls all hugged her and thanked her for …being herself really. And she thanked them for letting her.
Jamie took us through a warm up which ended with us in a ‘horse stance’ and grunting ‘Hoo Haa !’ at each other like a wildly comical, but very enthusiastic haka. It was great fun.
And then we were off.
The first 7.5k were all uphill , with only brief level stints. It was tough. Very tough. And yet every single one of us smiled. We were up in the mountains, the very roof of Europe, running in the snow, it was surreal, almost out of body at times, as if you were looking down on yourself. I encouraged everyone I met and told them that they were ‘fucking amazing’. And everyone that met me clapped me on the back, or high fived me, or gave me a hug. Annette had lied to me at the start and said that the first three kilometres were the steepest, but that was only because Eugene had lied to her in the first place.
Before I knew where I was, I was at the top.
There were a bunch of us there at the same time. Lots of hugs were exchanged. As we started our run down Georgie ran alongside me and took a selfie of us and said “You’re one of my great friends.” And I replied “Jesus, if this is what you put your friends through, what do you do to your enemies ?”.
Running down the mountain was fun, if a little precarious. The whole mountain was covered in snow, and it snowed the whole time we were out there, so it was sometimes tricky to see which path was ours, and on occasion if it was a path at all. One lady took a step too far to the right and found herself up to her neck in snow. It took three marshalls to retrieve her.
While running I didn’t feel cold at all, and didn’t appreciate just how cold it was until I stopped at the last water stop and took some of the luke warm Ribena and realised that my lips were numb. But I knew I didn’t have too far to go. I passed Geraldine and Sophie and asked if I could take a photo with them and then took a photo of the two of them, and then chided them that they could at least pretend that they were enjoying themselves , and took a third one. I told them that they were legends, and Sophie said I was funny. I like Sophie.
After that I had to step to one side to let a horse and sled pass, and then I found myself in an avenue of trees, all on my own , in the snow, and I stopped and twirled around and opened my mouth to catch falling snow and I laughed and said out loud “Amazing…this is fucking amazing.” And laughed and ran on. When I turned the last corner I heard the leader of the Lichenstein Pan Pipenfluggenhaffen Band call out my name and I heard about 20 of my fellowship cheer and I saw Eileen waiting for me, and she kissed me and I wasn’t numb anymore.
I only realised how tired I was when I stopped. But it was that happy tired that you get when you are satisfied with yourself. I was definitely satisfied with myself, especially this year as I wasn’t the last male to finish. I was second last ! Mr.Gottlieb, a sprightly 78 year old from Uster finished 4 minutes after me. I’ve already been in touch with the organisers and have pre-paid his entry into next year’s race.
We all congratulated each other, and in a moment of weakness I hugged Jamie and said ‘Thank you for this’. Then Eileen and I held hands and hobbled over to the conference centre. I made the mistake of sitting down in the changing room and then struggled to untie my shoes, bend my knees or anything else. I think it took about 20 minutes to remove my shorts and then get my thermal over my head. But as it was laughable, I laughed.
Most of the others met up at a nearby hotel for a celebratory drink, but we just wanted a warm shower and something to eat so we linked arms and walked through the town , 10 feet tall, back to our hotel. We had lunch there and saw some of the others arrive back and either head off up the town or risk the wrath of our strict sauna keeper who chased out anyone who dared to wear a swimsuit in her adults only traditional sauna. We just had a very large beer and went for a snooze.
We all met up again downstairs at 7 pm for dinner. Messages were exchanged on our WhatsApp group as people sought paracetamol for niggles and were deluged with offers of Neurofen, tablets, capsules, Difene, and Barry’s Teabags. Armed with drinks from the bar we made our way to the dining room where Georgie and Jamie greeted us with commemerative medals that they had made for us, as the race itself doesn’t give out medals. We all wore them proudly throughout dinner. We sat with Sheila, Claudia and Laura, none of whom we’d ever spoken to before, and yet , as we’d all now shared this journey and this place, chatted as if we’d know each other for the longest time.
After another delicious dinner we all made our way to a bar in town where Jamie had booked the top floor for our party. We shared drinks with old and new friends and then our awards took place. These are always a highlight of our trips. The categories are never repeated from trip to trip and are inspired by the recipients themselves. Our new friend Claudia got the ‘Hype Girl’ award for her Trojan efforts to include everyone. Charis got the Soul Sister for just that, Wendy got ‘Queen of The Training Runs to loud applause, and then Nicola got the Inspiration award for simply being her awesome self. Jemma got the Mountain Goat award, and in a break with tradition gave an acceptance speech which should probably have got its own reward for being genuine, heartfelt, funny, and perfect. Despite later telling Eileen that she thought I was funny but that she’d murder me if she had to live with me, I’m still happy to report that Lisa got the Wonder Woman award. Alan, who must be related to Davy Keogh, got the Google Maps award, and Declan Gavigan got the award for being Declan Gavigan, and all agreed that he deserved it.
Despite their shy and retiring demeanour, a very reluctant Grainne and Brendan were persuaded to sing and play piano. Despite a loud request from Jemma in between songs they neglected to play ‘Come Out You Black and Tans’. I timed a visit to the loo badly and returned just in time for Grainne to grab my hand as she sang the chorus “You say it best when you say nothing at all…” It may have been my imagination, but she seemed to put particular emphasis on, and nodded at me as she sang the ‘you say nothing at all’ bit. Jamie certainly got a kick out of it.
After that we caught up with Emma , whom we’d met briefly in New York, chatted with Sheila, Brendan, Annette, Eugene, Ciara and Michael, and then we headed home. Content. Everyone else partied on, and partied hard by all accounts until 3.30am. A message in the WhatsApp on Sunday morning trying to trace a missing phone led to a haul of three mobile phones, two jackets, three gloves and a bracelet being recovered from the bar.
Breakfast on Sunday morning was a quiet affair.
Thirty or so of us followed Papa Smurf as he led us on a Nature Trail above the town where we could see black squirrels, and try to feed them. Eileen held back and fell into company with Sarah and Naomi. I got a squirrel , called Luca, to eat hazelnuts from my hand and Sarah became Snow White as a multitude of little finches swooped down to eat crushed hazelnuts and flax seeds from her hands. We then went back to the hotel to get ready for our trip to the ice bath.
The ice bath wasn’t my idea.
In the lower lake in the village they had cut out a bean shaped pool and made a path from the hot box changing and viewing rooms to three steps down into the clear , freezing water. On the rare occasions that I follow my Soulmate on her wild water adventures I shriek like a banshee as soon as my little toe makes contact with non-domestic water, so I wasn’t really looking forward to trudging through the snow , -12C, and stepping into a frozen lake. But that’s exactly where I found myself at 12.30 last Sunday morning. I was distracted on the way there by conversation with Caroline whom we’d had great chats with in New York, but much sooner than I’d thought , I was standing on a wooden porch following instructions from a nice Swiss lady who was wrapped up in lovely warm clothes. We got changed into our swim gear in the hot box and then went over to the viewing room where we sat while the nice , warmly dressed Swiss lady told us exactly what we were going to experience, and how we should embrace it in silence, with commitment and something else…focus ! Yes, commitment and focus, two concepts that are normally alien to my life. The nice , warmly dressed Swiss lady, then took us through a breathwork which calmed us down and after taking us through a second one, asked us which four were going first , and without thinking I got up and followed Eileen, Jemma, and Claudia along the little path cut through the snow, down the three steps into the water , and knelt down in the pool so that the water was up to our shoulders.
There was silence.
I could hear my own gentle breathing and the crunch of the snow as the guy with the big plastic shovel moved around stirring the water so that it wouldn’t freeze over, I felt incredible. It was a silent catharsis. And then somewhere I heard someone whispering :
“Just a steel town girl on a Saturday night
Lookin’ for the fight of her life…”
I opened one eye to see Jemma whispering the lyrics, and was shortly joined by Claudia and Eileen whispering …
“In the real time world no one sees her at all
They all say she’s crazy…”
And then we all smiled and shouted
“She’s a maniac, maniac on the floor
And she’s dancing like she’s never danced before
She’s a maniac, maniac on the Dublin floor
And she’s dancing like she’s never danced before !!!”
It was silly , wonderfully silly, and that moment with us all smiling at each other, kneeling in a frozen lake in Arosa, laughing and singing Maniac at the same time will stay with me forever.
We walked back to the hotel, changed and went for lunch and then we each got a drink and sat in our room , opened the door onto our balcony and looked out at the mountains, and dozed on and off happily for the evening. There was no group dinner that evening , we all made our own arrangements, Eileen and I went to Twister and had reassuringly expensive steaks and a glorious bottle of Rioja. When we got back to the hotel other members of the fellowship drifted back from their meals and we all had a final few drinks together.
A common question asked , by both first timers, and folk who’d been on the trip last year, was, “How does it compare with last year’s ?” and this was a struggle to answer coherently. It was completely different. The group was larger, almost double last years, there were lots of new people, and unlike the last visit, I hadn’t made it to the training runs, so was meeting people for the fist time when we were there. The weather was different. Last year it was -4C, with clear blue skies, as opposed to this year’s -12C and constant snow. And the route was different, it was tougher. And most importantly we were all different people that we were a year ago. We’d all had triumphs and losses, experiences and adventures that had , even if was only slight, changed us. So last year was magic, it was the first time we’d been there, run in the snow , met an amazing group of great friends, and even witnessed an engagement at the top. And this year was magic too, all on its own, and with its own unique mix of amazing humans, and magic moments that can’t be properly explained to anyone who wasn’t witness to them.
Our final night together was calmer, and maybe even reflective. We shared lovely moments with Ciara and Michael, Nicole, Alan, Charis , and especially Grainne.
People started drifting off to bed. There was a gang of girls sitting on the sofas opposite the bar laughing , and at a table nearby Brendan, Eugene, Michael and I sat and sipped on whiskey. The girls were having great craic and Declan said that he hadn’t really had a chance to speak to all of them and said he’d go over before he went to bed. We chatted a bit more, and then I spotted one of the girls stand up with her back to us and remove her bra to loud applause. I laughed and stood up to go to bed.
“What’s going on over there ?” Brendan asked.
“I’m not sure, but I think your future wife has just removed her bra. Good night all.”
The journey back to the airport the next day was relatively uneventful, just a bunch of smiling, but subdued Irish people, helping each other with luggage and reminiscing. There was one last incident that encapsulated the essence our fellowship. One of our party, Laoise, discovered at the airport that she’d left her bum bag on the last train, containing her passport. Most of us only found this out at the boarding gate. Charis immediately set up a Revolut wallet and messaged everyone asking for €5 each to pay for Laoise’s unexpected hotel night in Zurich. Within 15 minutes she transferred €425 to her. And in an even further distillation of our essence the next day we received a message from Laoise saying that she had made it home, and that she’d donated the money to Breast Cancer Ireland in all our names.
What makes our fellowship magic ?
I think we’re basically like a giant pot noodle. We’re all individually composed of all the necessary ingredients to be complete, but we’re physically, emotionally, and spiritually ‘freeze dried’. All that’s needed to let us truly be ourselves is to just add water. Jamie and Georgie are our water.
Toodles,
Paul
P.S. This is for you . Thanks.
