Solitary Running

I haven't done any solitary running for some time now. Come to think of it, I haven't done any running. Period!

After a month of hiatus from running and doing nothing but eat, sleep, and watching TV programs, I ventured out to do more eating, more sleeping, and more watching TV programs, and have added one other activity: that of watching movies!

But it is now time for me to hit the road again, especially since I have an upcoming 15km and an upcoming 21km race to do within the next 30 days. (What the f%$& was I thinking?) Well, no time like the present to get this fat @$$ off the bed/ couch and hit the road again.

And so I did.

At 5:00pm, I got off my bed, put on my running shorts and a simple cotton tee shirt, laced up my rubber shoes and left the house. No Garmin watch this time. I didn’t care about the pace (or more correctly, I didn’t want to know!). And I ran, or rather I jogged. There was nobody else on the road. But I didn’t mind. To be frank, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed looking at the different houses, the Christmas decors that weren’t put down yet (one house had a total of 8 Santas on their gates, garden, walls, etc), the damp roads, the foggy atmosphere, the large trees, the stray cats, the dead frogs (well, maybe this sight I didn’t enjoy). A lot of things entered my mind too as I ran (okay fine.. JOGGED) around the area: the accomplishments I’ve done, the blessings I’ve received, the changes in my life, the good stuffs, the bad stuffs, and all the stuffs in between.

And I think about running too. How I’ve come to my peak running form about a year ago, only to have it crashing again due to injury. How I’ve gained weight since then. How I’ve slowed down since then. How I’ve been left behind. But then I think about how I started running when running wasn’t the craze yet. There were no Garmins yet, no Ipods, no Runnr store, no Newtons, no Secondwind, no BGC, no RunRio Trilogy, no running blogs, no ROX, no Condura Races, no chip timers, and no finisher medals. Wow, how things have changed! But going back to me – I never thought I would run longer than a 10km. Actually, a 10km run was already overwhelming to just think about it. I never thought I would survive a full marathon. But I did. Repeatedly. I never thought I would run it at a good pace. But I did.

And then, I remember... that this was how I started running. Just me and the road. Left, right, left, right. This was me some years ago. Where there was no other runner in sight. This was me going back to basics with just my G Shock watch (back then, it was an Adidas Sports watch) to time the entire run. This was me not knowing how far or how fast I’ve ran but just kept on going for as long as the road would me take me. This was me running with no water or cash in sight but didn’t care about it. This was me not being competitive, with no running goals, no time pressure, no PR pressure.

This was just me and the road.

SOLITARY RUNNING: What a GREAT FEELING!