I'll keep on running ...

Someone must be wondering what is so special about running until I put this hobby as part of my lifestyle. Someone must be wondering why I’m so addicted to it until I look so skinny compared to what I used to be three years ago. If you are one of that ‘someone’, I believe you’ve never run or ever been seriously running before. But that’s OK. I wrote this running story not only to share it with my fellow runners, but also with those who are not runners so that we can ‘understand’ each other.

What I meant by ‘understand’ is for those who are not into running, who find that runners are odd, weird and different, especially in my community (family members, colleagues and neighbors) where most them don’t practice a healthy lifestyle or any physical activities. They may think that running is such an activity that only elite athletes are able to do it. They may think that it doesn’t matter how far and fast the normal people can run, we will not be able to grab the top spots in any competitions anyway. So they may think why run when they can have a healthy body by taking up futsal or badminton or even walking.

That is why running is not a sport that can easily attract people to join by just watching, let alone reading. By the way, at the end of this already bored story, I don’t expect my fellow colleagues and neighbors to just grab their running shoes and start running immediately. That is why I believe, to understand running, they must experience it by themselves. The most important to start running is they must have something miraculous to trigger in their minds.

Anyway, running must have started somewhere & sometime in my life before. If my memory serves me right, I started running when I was 16 years old. I used to run every late afternoon from my school at Alor Akar, Kuantan to Telok Cempedak beach and back. That’s approximately a 6km route as the first running route of my life. I ran for only about one year or so and stopped just before my SPM examination. That was nearly 14 years ago when I ran for nothing but for the fun to just get away from my hostel. I ran just to enjoy the beautiful white sandy beach and breezing winds over my face at the half way mark.

After a long break, I started running again when I was studying at a local university in 1997. I used to run around my hostel in loops of 1km. It was really weird for me because I was the only student who runs every other late afternoon, round and round the same pedestrian path where others just watch me past by in countless laps. I stopped my run when my favorite route was no more easily accessible, when I had to rent a house outside campus. But that was not the real reason why I had stopped running. I believe it was because I was running blank. I was not running for any purpose. That why I kept running on and off.

The bad thing about me when I stop running the last time was I started smoking. Being around with my family members, friends and colleagues where most of them are smokers really helped getting me involve in this bad habit. I still remember one day when I had asked for a cigarette from one of my friends without noticing that he had only the last one left. Yet he still insisted to give me with a quote, “what’s a friend for?”. But I cannot blame them isn’t it? It all starts with me. I had wasted approximately 10 years of my life as a slave to cigarettes. Actually I started smoking when I was 15! But of course it was on and off then. If I had carried on this bad habit for another 10 years, you would not be able to read this crap. I’m glad that I’ve managed to put the habit behind me since 6 years’ ago.

I stop my running for a very long time until I started again recently. Well, after almost 10 years of resting, wasting my life as a heavy smoker at one point, build-up huge amounts of fat in my body due to bad eating habits and getting sick. As a result, I occasionally had very bad migraine, my blood pressure was bloody high and my weight was almost 80kg. For a man whose height is only 1.67m, that’s OVERWEIGHT.

Back to my running episode. It had to start somewhere again and sometime right? It began around early October 2007 when all the Muslims were preparing for Hari Raya. Unfortunately for me, I had a really bad high fever just three days before. I was lying hopelessly in bed, barely able to move my body, thinking what’s wrong with me and why I’m having this problem that I’ve never experienced before. I told myself that it must be probably due to my unhealthy lifestyle. I told to myself then, “This is it! It’s enough! If I ever come out of this condition alive, I want to be as healthy as I can be”. Then a day before Hari Raya, I found out I was actually having chicken pox! Quite a surprise since I was already almost 29 years’ old but my Mom confirmed that I’ve never had it before. Now I know why I feel such a huge pain inside my body until I cannot even stand up and walk. But anyway, I’ve made up my mind to change my lifestyle after I recovered. So I must continue ...

About a week after that, I bought a cheap Adidas running shoe with only one thing on my mind … to start running again and forever. I still remember the day I started my run. I could barely finish the short route around my housing area. I had to stop and walk for a few meters even before the first kilometer mark. It was really hard to maintain even a very slow pace during that early days of running.
But now, I’m changed! I’ve lost almost 20 kilos since I started running again. I’ve never been as healthy as I am today and I feel so blessed for what I have today. I watch my diet proper as I monitor my training as well. Oh, by the way, I’m almost at the end of my training for the first ever full marathon of my life. I can’t believe I will at the starting line of the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2009 in less than a month. With the help and support from my beloved family and friends from Kota Kemuning Pacers, I believe I will cross the finish line.

A lot of things have happened since the first day of my run. I hit the wall, I felt pain, I injured my knee, I torn my calve muscle, I was sidelined for awhile but after all that, I still LOVE running. As long as I can breath, stand and move my legs, I will keep on running …

By the way, you can check on my training progress at http://www.buckeyeoutdoors.com/cgi-bin/training/traininglog?guest=Riq