Why I run.

Around this time last year, I started running seriously. Well, suffice to say that I'm not living a fit life prior to that. Been smoking, eating craps (sometimes now!) no real physical activities (climbing three flights of stairs to my apartment doesnt count) and a lot of late nights.

10 days into my serious running, I still couldnt climb that hill near my house. It's a 2.4k loop with approx. 1k of gradual climb, a few hundred metres of flat and downhill to complete the loop. Usually, by the 7th minute, I'll be walking to catch my breath.

Three months after that, I completed my first race. So, in the months leading up to it, I trained for a sport. For the first time. I would do late runs, sometimes at 10pm just to make up for the weekly run quota. I didn't know about weekly mileage back then. I ran 3 times a week with distances no more than 10k each.

Now, I religously train 5 days a week without anyone telling me to do it. Mileages build up to 70k a week. Hours spent on the road. Health is always monitored so that I wont fall back on training due to sickness. Eating has changed a lot. But the most important aspect that have affected me is, time. Of course during a race, you want to cut your time down, creating personal records. But for me, I learned to manage time efficiently. If I couldnt squeeze a run in the morning, there's always the evening. Or night. I know what would happen if I slept late that night. I know that each and everyone of is awarded with 24 hours a day. I know time is, important.

Maybe I'm not far from concluding that runners dont have a fun life. A boring lot. Yeah training 5 days a week (or more!), spending countless hours on the track or doing long runs and wont resist the temptation to talk about anything running related anywhere, anytime. But, what's the fun of doing anything at all if you dont see results from your effort? If you dont quite see the result you wanted, you work on it and endure. After all, life IS an endurance sport, ain't it?