The Almost Sportsman ...

It rained so bad yesterday in my neck of the woods that the roads around my office area was submerged with water and I had trouble leaving the office just to get home. I live only about a 10 minute drive from my house and yesterday it took me at least half an hour to get home. I can imagine those leaving for home from the heart of town. I'll bet they were stranded for hours. My sympathies people. Then again, wait just one minute. Did it even rain in the capital city? Since it rained here I presume it also rained over there. Gee, what the heck am I talking about rain for? How interesting ... LOL!

Well, the good thing about the rain was that when I finally got home, it made my daily evening run such a joy. The weather was just perfect for the run, nice and cool. And I did enjoy my run thoroughly. In fact I just absolutely LOVE running. But it wasn't always that way, you know. I seriously didn't like running or any physical activity for that matter.

When I was young, I hated sports of any kind. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a weakling or a sissy boy or anything along those lines. I just didn't like sports all that much. I would of course enjoy the occasional game of football or badminton with my cousins but I was more the timid kid who would rather be at home curled up in bed either sleeping or reading my comics. I didn't really like mixing around with other kids and joining them for their games and all that, especially if it required some form of running and stuff like that.

Even in school, I would shy away from sports or any physical activity for as long as I could. Well, of course I couldn't escape when it came to Physical Education classes. Then I'd be forced to partake in whatever barbaric physical exercise the teacher thought of. I'd even not take part in any extra curriculum activities organized by my school and my school didn't really force anyone to join in. That worked out just fine with me until one fine day the school decided that every student HAD to take part in at least one extra curriculum activity.

Darn, that put a damper on my plans. There went my afternoon naps after school cos most of these activities were organized after school back then. With no choice left in the matter, I had to pick something and since my ambition at that particular time was to be a policeman, I joined the police cadets thinking it would be pretty cool and besides I heard how women always loved a man in uniform ... LOL! Furthermore I thought I wouldn't need to do much running around. How wrong I was. The damn cadets was like prison camp. We had to practice our marching in the blazing sun and all kinds of other torturous things that I decided to switch to something else.

I joined something much safer with was the Leo Club and that suited me just fine. No strenuous running around or anything too physical to do. I even made it to the main committee as an assistant treasurer. Cool I thought, at least I had a nice cushy position ... hehehe ... And it remained that way until finished my secondary schooling (equivalent to high school in some parts of the world). After that I decided to do my studies at a private college where I met my buddies Adrian and Sean. And that's really when I started to take a more active interest in physical and sporting activities.

It was during this time when I was first introduced to martial arts, namely Tae Kwon-Do. They had a martial arts recruitment demonstration at the college and I was intrigued by it, so I signed up for it. All of us signed up for it but most of my other buddies gave up on it leaving only me. And strangely enough, for someone who wasn't at all keen on physical stuff, I took a huge interest in Tae Kwon-Do and even became obsessed with it. I used to attend training almost everyday by following my instructor to all classes that he conducted elsewhere. Even my buddies thought I was a little too crazy about it.

I was practically at every class my instructor taught and I would be actively involved in any recruitment demonstrations that they had. I actually became good at it. Which surprised the hell out of me. I was NEVER really good at anything in my life. I enjoyed this so much and was so committed to it that one day my instructor actually gave me one of his classes to teach. Boy, I was on cloud nine and three quarters. I was over joyed. I even thought maybe this could become a career or something but that was before I decided I wanted to get in advertising. On hindsight, maybe it was the wrong choice ... LOL!

But once I started my graphic design course, I hardly had time for martial arts and eventually gave it up. It was also around this time when I decided to take up running with my buddy Sean. And it was at this time that my affair with running really started. We ran 9.25 km almost every single day. I enjoyed it so much that I got fanatical about running. I ended up buying all kinds of running magazines, the latest running shoes, full running kits and whatnots. It was an adrenalin rush every time I ran and even more so during the times we took part in half marathons.

Then work and distance got in our way and I started running on and off and at one time completely stopped altogether. It went on that way for at least a year until I decided to start running again. And as every runner worth their salt would know just how blooming hard it is to start running again, especially on your own. I hated it at that time, I wanted to quit because I was so unfit. I couldn't even do decent times. I was impatient for improvement. I couldn't wait to see results and when it didn't show I was depressed and gave it up again. It's been an on/off thing for the past couple of years. And my body started to balloon, especially my tummy which wifey always points out to me :D

So, I started running consistently again and loving every single pounding step of it. I realize I've been lacking motivation in the past but now wifey is my inspiration to run. Besides, she did say a while back that if I did get healthy and fit again like I was before, she'd let me sleep with Jennifer Garner ... LOL! Just kidding honey :D But I hope the old bones will cooperate and not ruin my appetite to run. I wish I could like find a fountain of youth or something and go back to the times when I was really fit as a fiddle but then what's a little hard work, ya?

Oh boy, would you just look at this. I think I got carried away with my post. I hope none of you fell asleep halfway through reading this but if you made it all the way through, congratulations, you've just won the grand prize of 2 million Zorkian dollars ... LOL! Ok, ok I borrowed that from that Spiff character :D