Shouts & Murmurs

Been running regularly for almost three months now and I’m happy to report that in every run I’ve joined, I beat my previous record. :D

Adidas KOTR - 47:24
HSBC - 44:53

And today at the gym, for some reason I was really energized and finished 5 kilometers on the treadmill in under 43 minutes.

Not bad. Not bad at all. The goal is to finish 5K in less than 35 minutes before I move on to the next distance. Was really drained during the HSBC run—I went home rather late from the office and was not properly hydrated—but I surprised myself by managing to finish at the time I had set for myself: 45 minutes. It wasn’t even a full-on run because I think I brisk-walked half the time (really humid, that one), but I guess my speed is picking up for me to have finished in 44 minutes++. :) 

Really loving where this path is taking me. Can’t wait until the next run! 

When I came up with my 30 Before 30 list, one of my goals was to run a full marathon. But because of certain health developments (cough variant asthma is the current bane of my existence), I decided to revise it and run a total of 15 races instead. 

So far I’ve gone on one 3K run (sponsored by my good friend T) and a 5K run in last weekend’s Adidas King of the Road, so I only have 13 more to go. The distance will increase with the number of races—it might even include a full marathon :D—because ever since I started running regularly almost two months ago, I’ve become quite addicted to the sport. 

When I run, I’m either lost in my thoughts or lost in the music of my iPod or just lost in the moment, and I am always awestruck when I realize I’ve already come a long way from the starting line. There are no words to describe that feeling I get when I start speeding up, find myself suddenly crunching from one kilometer to another, without feeling the least amount of pain and discomfort. 

I still remember a few months ago when I would measure progress in terms of the number of songs played in my iPod. When I was at my most unfit state, my total running time wouldn’t even amount to a complete 3-minute song, and the rest of the way I would just walk. Now I’ve lost track of the number because I just run, run, run until I reach that point of exhaustion, and funnily enough the moment I recover, I run some more. It is just amazing. 

No words will ever describe that moment when you turn your finally corner and spot that much anticipated FINISH. It happened again last weekend at the Adidas race. It just felt sooo good to make that final all-out effort to finish at a time shorter than my last. You run your fastest, and you feel every single pore and cell in your body exert their best effort that by the time you reach the finish, your cheeks are all red because you’ve exhaled all the pent-up toxins and tension in your body. It’s orgasmic. Haha. 

One of my running friends told me that she will be joining the HSBC anniversary fun run on November. Told my sister we ought to sign up. I’m still running the 5K leg, but I’m determined to start 2012 with a 10K run, so if you guys know of any good races in January, let me know. :D