The Long Run
HomeA spiritual and physical journey across six sacred landscapes, from the Australian Outback to Himalayas, the roof of the world.
BY RENALD GALLIS • 6 ISSUE SERIES
ULTRA RUNNING • MINDFULNESS • INDIGENOUS WISDOM • MIDLIFE CRISIS • ADVENTURE • SPIRITUALITY • CONTEMPLATION • BROTHERHOOD • CONNECTION • NATURE • fINDING PURPOSE
Roland is a seasoned ultra-trail runner, with medals, finish lines, and a Garmin full of data. After completing La Diagonale des Fous, the world’s most brutal 180km race, he feels empty. He has conquered mountains but forgotten why he climbs them.
In volume #1, a chance encounter with Jarli, an Aboriginal elder, sets Roland on a ten-day journey through Australia’s Red Centre (and eventually across six of the world’s most sacred landscapes over the course of a series made of six issues). What he discovers along the way reshapes everything he thought he knew about running, aging, finding purpose and what it means to arrive. This mythic and mystic trail, like life, is not a journey, nor a destination, but a connection. A connection with Nature, with others.
From Australia’s Songlines to Tibet’s Himalayas, each issue brings Roland deeper into a local culture’s sacred relationship with movement, land, food, community and meaning.
Roland meets Jarli and joins the Brotherhood of the Long Run on the Larapinta Trail: 223km through sacred Arrernte country, learning to run the Songlines.
Lesson: Country and Presence. We are already home.
Hina's homeland. Running the Te Araroa trail through Māori sacred sites, understanding genealogy, connection to land, and indigenous resilience.
Lesson: Whakapapa: knowing your lineage and place.
High-altitude training with Tenzin. The Mount Kailash circumambulation. A spiritual pilgrimage on foot, meeting monks who run as moving meditation.
Training with Kofi and his Kenyan runners' crew. Running as joy, community, and survival. Confronting privilege and what it means to run for pleasure versus necessity.
Yuki's monastery. Training with Tendai monks attempting Kaihōgyō, the 1,000-day mountain running practice. Extreme minimalism and a quest for enlightment through selfless service and devotion.
Returning home from Australia, back to his origins in France. A multi-day journey from the Chemin of Compostelle to the Alps to Normandy. Passing on wisdom and sharing his learnings.
Six seekers from across the globe, each carrying their culture’s deepest wisdom about movement, land, and what it means to be alive.
Ultra-trail runner searching for the meaning behind the miles.
Guardian of the Songlines. Guide through Country and presence.
Māori runner who found herself by returning to whenua, the land.
Lung-gom-pa runner. Trains the mind before the legs.
Born running. Chose to love it. Runs to celebrate every step.
Ran from Tokyo's gilded corporate cage until she found a monastery.
"You swim like you're drowning. You run like you're fleeing." Jarli at Little Bay Beach.
Uluru at night, where the oldest living culture holds the oldest mountains.
I was a “stolen generation”, I lost track of my family. I found my way by coming back here.
Looks like an opening towards a different world. Our real wealth is nature, presence, connection, ...
Each issue is grounded in authentic indigenous relationships with land and movement, from Aboriginal Songlines to Māori whakapapa to Kenyan ubuntu.
Roland's midlife search for meaning resonates beyond running. It is a story about nature, presence, ego, aging, and finding purpose in life.
The greatest lesson is the simplest: it is not about the destination, but about the journey and the right company.
“Distance covered: irrelevant.
Distance travelled: infinite.
Country spoke.”
ROLAND’S JOURNAL, DAY 7
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We acknowledge and respect Aboriginal People as the Country’s First Peoples, and Nations, and recognise Aboriginal People as the Traditional Owners and Occupants of Australia’s Land and Water.
© 2026 Renald Gallis. All rights reserved.
