I've been thinking about this number a lot recently.

It's pleasing in my mind - rounded, easily divisible. Somehow evens are always softer, and perhaps this is also a form of synaesthesia. Not in colours and sounds but a way of feeling things to its edges. The 4 certainly is not rounded to look at, but the way it sounds is. With other meanings, spelled differently, even in different languages does it mean something.

The 2 is a swoop of the pen, then down and you are there. But also provides alternate ways of looking at the world.

Each number is equally divided. And together. Well, nestled together they form a great conundrum, as established by Douglas Adams.

I thought about this number a lot over the last weekend, camped between Crummock Water and Buttermere, lugging tents and tables, chairs and banners through fields and into vans, supporting on Ourea Events’ Great Lakeland 3Day. Three days of running over hills and through sphagnum moss, getting damp and sweaty, but also smiles and joy at pushing bodies and minds and exhaling in beautiful surroundings.

I don’t run, but that didn’t really matter, volunteering as I was, making sure there was cake and tea, loo roll and empty bins and questions for the runners about their day in the hills. It was infectious, but also reflective in the downtime.

They say the big years are ones ending with a zero, but 2024 is the one I claim instead. It’s the year I turn 42. There's a satisfying symmetry to this. Rounded, inverted, a soft year.

I crawl into my tent on Saturday night after 8 hours on my feet, every part aching. The tent next door coughs once, there is a smattering of rain drops on the tent roof, and I nestle down, realising that as I say goodbye to 41, I feel different – assertive, reconfigured, wise in ways I will still mull over.

For those who don't know - 42 is the answer given by Deep Thought (a supercomputer the size of a planet) as the answer to life, universe and everything.

And as the next scene plays out: well, noone knows what the question is.

Theories abound on the internet. Adams famously said it was simple. And elaborated no further.

Day 1 of the running turns into Day 2, then Day 3 and we finally pack up, head south and homeward. I’ve made 1,000 cups of tea, eaten more slabs of cake than I deserve, belly-laughed with strangers turned friends. It has been a weekend of purpose, exploration and affirmation about what matters.

This 42 year has a shape where I feel on the cusp of realising some long-held dreams. We shall see whether I am right by the time August rolls around. About whether the vivid visuals I am having beyond the dream space are in fact premonitions about a different life. A more creative life.

Something that is truer to me, and something to envisage for next 20 years, or more.

As many pointed out, you don’t need to run to enjoy the Great LakeLand 3Day. You just have to turn up with a smile. You can even borrow the running shoes. And that’s a lovely shape to sit in.

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