like running for the first time

It’s 6:30 pm. The lights at the PhilSports track has this faint somber glow for it has just rained a while back. There is lots of mud on the soccer field but the footballers couldn’t care less. On the track itself were runners of mixed demography. The old, the young, the serial marathoners and those who are desperately burning fat. I tighten my shoelaces and stretch my sedentary tortured back. Now as soon as I felt like it, there is no countdown. I just go and run.

And I find it to be a new joy. Running in my opinion is the best and simplest form of exercise. It is the true test of one’s stamina. In any sport there is, running is the core training that enables someone to endure fatigue and go on. No need for machines and accessories and special gadgets here. It’s all you. I like it best when say after two laps, you get to feel the strain on your leg and calf muscles and at the same time almost hear your heartbeat as you grasp for air. It’s really all you. First time I ran I thought my lungs were about to collapse. “Uhm just a minute master, but I thought I was already lined up for cancer?” Lol.

Oh wait. There is one gadget that is a necessity for me. My ipod. Listening to Explosions in the Sky makes me go on forever. Well not really, but it helps me focus. The ambient track “Your Hand in Mine” has become my running anthem. But of course I need my testosterone filled music too. On that note, DMX howls comes very handy. And oh a lot of Rob Zombie too.

Listen everyone, running is the shiz. Just go. Who knows, you may end up competing for the Men’s Health Urbanathlon next month. I’ll sure try to join. But until then, it’s me and Rob on the tracks.