I know most people run long distance as easy as they stir sugar into coffee.
I recently completed a 16.8km run with my friend. It was the longest distance I have ever ran. We vowed to 'train' every weekend, running along the beach and various location. There were some weeks I did not feel like running, but we egged each other on. We moved from running during the cool evenings to trying to beat the full sunrise on weekend mornings.
Mysteriously, I completed the race. The furthest I ran before the race was about 8km, and I asked my friend if I was able to complete it. A two-time sundown marathon runner, she laughed and said 'just walk and run.. you'll get there'.
I worried about the distance. I worried about lagging behind, or even being the last of the crowd. In the end, the distance didn't faze me at all, the heat did. It was a cloudless day, and the sun was beating down on us at 8am. Soon I felt so hot I was drizzling water all over my face and limbs. After uncountable water stations, I arrived at the sight of the big marquee, more happy that there is shade more than anything else.
Many times in life, there is the obvious problem, the bugbear, the thorn in the flesh. We mull over it before it happens, and we do not want to be the 'loser'. I had GPS timings for all my practice runs, I extrapolate distances, I studied the route, but I never anticipate that the thing that will bug me most is the heat and sun. After 10km, I realised the distance no longer bothered me, and if I had a choice to continue to a half marathon, I would be able to do it. I learnt how to improvise along the way, changing my run strategy to 'run when there is no shade, slow down when there is'. Watch me on at the F1 pit stop, I was running like a Ferrari (no, probably a Toyota) along the grandstand where there was no reprieve.
But there were also quite a satisfaction in the end. It did not come with just completing the race and posting that 'achievement' to boast on facebook, but it was the silent comfort to know that somewhere inside me, I harboured the commitment to train for the weekly runs, the discipline to run the distance, weathered the heat without complaining and very privileged to deepen a friendship along the way.
It's strange how completing 2.4km fitness test during secondary felt so much like a drag. Good things come with age.
