Idle times

Bed is warm, comfortable and a magnet! Annoyingly I turned off my alarm clock—not just for days but for months. I just wanted silence.
I guess this happens to a few, but then again maybe not. Perhaps it is just me. I don’t know how it came about but I am to blame. I am guilty. It is a choice and I allowed it to happen. A few weeks ago, my rendezvous with Mt. Fuji was another dream come true. I remember bringing home a poster of it a couple of years ago from the Kinabalu International Climbathon and I knew in my heart it was set to happen. However, as I became a mediocre, I was in no shape. Training stalled and got lazy. Weeks of dullness and no action.  I consciously know that I’m not fit and most importantly I was not in my running self to compete. My body and mind weren't in unison.
Strange but I kind of like this moment of inaction. If you happen to read this post and can relate to my situation, I would like it very much to hear from you about  how you beat it or how you’re dealing with it. I am missing my runs---my long runs and the happy workouts. 
I looked for answers. A few friends were very consoling as I told them of my slump. Replies were almost all the same. In one word, they call it a ‘phase’. A juncture of time when the body is needing something to break a monotony, though I am sure I am not a hardcore distance runner as I don’t race much.
I also searched deep within me how to get back, to find myself. It boiled down to the word: ‘choice’. I made that choice to give in to a craving that I don’t understand. I allowed it to take charge of me. Being a good runner is all about devotion and consistency. Since moving to Indonesia, I kind of lost a whole bunch of that. It sounds an excuse but half of it is true. I submitted myself to the fact that I am weak. This acceptance of my limitation is liberating…therapeutic.
At the moment, I am close to going back. I am starting to feel the itch of going back on the road again. Though I know I need to take a break again soon for one personal reason that could change my life. I have no qualms as I know that I could always go back. I just need this 'space' to give something a chance. Running and races will always be there, they won’t go away. Roads, trails and mountains would always welcome me back. That I am sure.
You’ll know when I am back.

Sublime

I sat, relieved as I am done for the day’s work at school. ‘tis the time of the day when I’m in my usual hunting for quotes, which I take seriously, from great minds of running and share them daily to the running community, hoping a good amount  of reflection would be done and inspire more converts.

As I settled for a good four or five quotes ready to be shared, my copy of James E. Shapiro caught my eye. One of the few fave things that I brought while here in Indonesia. I went through the pages and saw oldschool greats like Ted Corbitt, Arthur Greatheart Newton, Don Ritchie, John Jewell, Mavis Hutchison, to name a few.

It’s more than a year since I’ve been hunting and reading quotes about running and it is just sublime. Ever since, I make sure I share a daily running quote, particularly in the Baguio Running Wall in Facebook.

The book Ultramarathon by James E. Shapiro, for me, is loaded with chunks of good read of unassuming runners of great feat. I slowly read the lines again, taking them in like how I eat my favorite yogurt, delighting in the taste and understanding the flavor.

Perhaps it is just right to share some significant thoughts of Shapiro’s personal accounts of his interviews and running competitively against some of the ultrarunning world’s remarkable distance runners that runners of this current period idolize.

At the classic 24-hour run enclosed in a track oval, Jim articulated  what was going through his mind while on the run.

 “Go easy. Go relaxed. Save energy. Ignore the world. Forget the deep habit of every runner who loves to race which makes you yearn to close up on the pair of heels in front. The 24-hour is a special monster. It required. I felt, obedience to special laws or it would flatten the runner as indifferently as a hippo flopping down on a blade of grass.”

Shapiro also has this to say why some run.

“We do this to experience the whole with the goal of finishing steadily drawing nearer all the while, as we climb and descend in a sometimes easy harmony with the hills and the rotaries and the shoulders of countless roadways that meander through the world. Something always happens; there is a bit of fullness at the end of such a day—nothing of stunning spiritual dimensions but deeply pleasurable all the same.”

And who would forget believers such as Dr. George Sheehan, Roger Bannister, John Bingham who gave their own delivery of how beautiful running is, in their books are all a confirmation of the truth in running. Their meaningful words are reverberating and well appreciated. They’re a classic to every runner’s heart.

“The runner does not know how or why he runs. He only knows that he must run, and in so doing he expresses himself as he can in no other way. He creates our of instability and conflict something that gives pleasure to himself and others, because it releases feelings of beauty and power latent within us all.” – Roger Bannister

"It's very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit."

"To keep from decaying, to be a winner, the athlete must accept pain--not only accept it, but look for it, live with it, learn not to fear it." – Dr. George Sheehan

“Frustration is the first step towards improvement. I have no incentive to improve if I’m content with what I can do and if I’m completely satisfied with my pace, distance and form as a runner. It’s only when I face frustration and use it to fuel my dedication that I feel myself moving forwards.”

“The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.” – John Bingham

As my running continues, so is my love for it. The memories of my marathons, my joyful halfs, ultra trails--I just couldn’t get enough. The pull of distances longer than 26.2 miles is deep, intimate…passionate. An attraction that I don’t want to end nor cut.

Thanks to these extraordinary people, who inspired all of us to go further and rouse more souls to continue the love for running.