I have collected my kitsch medals and taken the kiss-your-medal selfies. I have ran to my relatives at finish lines and also collapsed in run-villages on my own. I have driven the distance and will even take a plane, to make it to a marathon race. I am a runner because I have raced five times since I started my first 5k run last March.
I am a runner because I have added 85 runs to a run program that shot-off July 8, 2013. I have only stopped to recover or taper, and I have trained continuously and constantly. With endurance and passion.
I ran in the shadow of the Petronas Towers at twilight, and woken up twelve hours later to the same red track in Malaysia's humid dawn. I prefer to run at the brink of day or at outset of evening, when the sun and light are dramatic. But I have also run in the middle of the day, in autumn and winter, in New York and Geneva, seeking the warmest time of the day, wearing windbreaker and woolen hat, remembering how hot and sweaty I could get in August and September in Dubai!
No puddles, or rain, or party nights, or excuses have stopped me from running, except that I couldn't run a metre without my thumping music, or without the desire to capture what I see. The phone-camera is a must come! Because I run alone for the most part, perhaps sometimes joining a community run, or joining a pack of runners in a park, or going on a random run with a friend, pushing my intervals with another!
Most of the time, it is still dark, and the track undiscovered and aleatory, and I am all alone. The world is still and I have found my music and my zen. My thoughts are void. My worries and concerns delayed. My distractions minimised. I may be running past SanDiego surfers, or Nice beaches, or NewYork foliage, or Vietnamese scooters, but they are fleeting sights, they are foreground views. I am focused on heart rate, I am checking with my body, I am learning about pace, and I am breathing, smiling, laughing, gasping, swearing,singing!
I never was a runner till I became one. Impossible becomes possible only after you have done it!
