It read 58 kilos when I weighed myself last night - something must be wrong with that damn scale - up by 10 from my previous running weight of 48 back in 2015. I don't want all that weight on myself. Some say I look better, but I don't feel better. I wheeze when I go upstairs, I can't bend as much when I tie my running shoes. I curse it every time and I am beginning to curse myself for not being able to run comfortably as much. I don't mind age catching up with me, or the work putting pressure on my running, but not the added weight. Two kilos would I guess be fine with me. But nothing else beyond that, please.
2015 had been a better running year than last. Not that it was bad, it's just that I had more days I didn't run in 2016 than days I did. In 2015, Dailymile had me logging a total of 1,553 kilometers. It had me recording less than half that, 766.43 kilometers, last year, That even included my first run of 8k for 2017. I had 9 months of running beyond 100 kilometers in 2015, but had only one, January, this year. All other monthly totals dipped, the lowest was 40 in May. Outside of January, when I logged 119 kilometers, the only other months that could be considered as having outstanding totals were July with 79 and December with 81.
Why? That is one question I asked myself every time I looked at my stats. I have become more tired, lazier, giving in to the coo of the bed over the call of the road. Perhaps it is because of the pressures of the job. It has always been much more difficult to keep running side by side with having to work early shifts five days of the week. Travelling more than a hundred kilometers by bus on Fridays also make it more of a struggle to get out of bed early, put on running shoes, and hit the road for a long one on Saturdays. And yes, I have to accept that age has somehow started catching up with me.
In my mind, I still see myself crossing the finish line of the Holcim-Sunrun 28th Ultimate Challenge Davao Finishers' Marathon in 10th place, the best marathon finish I have had, 3:52.21, and a surprise to me. The Davao Finishers' Marathon course has always been a killer, with the hills of Ma-a and the Diversion Road, and finishing it running all the way was quite an achievement. I had never finished my previous marathons without a walking segment. That was in December of 2011, perhaps my best running year ever. Earlier in March, I nailed my Araw ng Dabaw Phoenix Run 21K with a 1:41:31 finish for a medal as top finisher in the 55-59 age group. I also finished first in the same age group with a 1:42:11 at the 35th Milo Marathon Davao City Regional 21K Elimination Race in November. I had an annual total of 2,400 kilometers. That was five years and a bit ago, I was 56. So much water has passed under the bridge. The metatarsal stress fracture on my right foot, 3 months in a foot cast and the slow return to running again, the work, the transfer, and all those days of mixing earlier morning runs with early morning work hours. I guess it all had to take it's toll, that and age catching up with me.
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| December 4, 2011. Gasping for breath at the finish of the Holcim-Sunrun 28th Ultimate Challenge Davao Finishers' Marathon. My 3.52.21 was good enough for 10th place, a PB for the marathon. No walks. All pain and exhaustion in the last 5k. But all the ecstasy after. I was 56. |
Indeed, in this world, as Heraclitus said, the only constant is change. We can only but adapt to that change if we are to survive and thrive.
If it is any consolation, I see a trend towards better running days in the making, and I am keeping my fingers crossed I am right. Runs I have logged have been on the uptrend in the last two months of 2016. Perhaps that picture of me crossing the finish line of a 42k, one I have ran all the way, would still have a retake, maybe with a different result all together, a different story.
We are never too old to dream, they say, and I do not think I am too old a runner to have a better 2017. All I have to do is keep moving forward.
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| At the end of my first run for 2017. Looking forward to more. |
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