As how many have said about "Never Say Never". How true is it. I told myself i'll never want to do any running, at all.
Remember how every of us gone through the Fitness Test during school time. 2.4Km run was a drag... never once did i pass it, or even motivated to do something about it. The ONLY time i pass my run during my last year of school, was a total flop... the instructor was holding on to two stop- watches, and clocked my time in that confusion--- so i passed! Thank god, i escaped any position for re-test.
Since then, i stop running. i get bored. I can practice yoga all alone for 2 hours, but not running for even 10 minutes. Music helps a while... but as the boredom expands, i U-turn running back home. As running events get more popular here in Singapore, i've friends who loves to run, and some even challenge the full- marathon. Kudos to them!
I give yoga or pilates classes to people who are preparing for marathon or long run. But i never like the sport. I've seen how people busted their knee joints, fractured their ankles and slipped their spinal disc from running. And these gave me a plus point for striking off from my activities. Only, if only people know how to run correctly, its healthy.
Every now and then, my friends invited me join them for running events, i turned them flat down. For the reasons that most events happen in the weekends morning ( i'll be in classes), that's a good way to reject them. That's the fact, no lying:) This time, i got asked again... hey.. the run starts in the night..!
Dooms... i did not what crossed my mind at that time... but i got registered to a 10 km run.
To many avid runners out there, 10 km may means peanut-- or just your daily routine warm- up before you get serious training started. For people who don't run, like me.... its like a mile. As the day gets nearer, i regretted on my decision.
I tried to do some "training". The first private practice, i tried running for a half -hour. I could not get out of bed, or even had to stay away from my yoga mat for one whole week. Then, i shoo away from the track, and just do yoga. The second last- minute private training, lasted for just 10 minutes...
On that day of the event, i insisted to do my usual yoga practice... 2 hours of stretching--- should prevent me from getting any joints injuries or muscular cramps. And what's more, yoga practices always lighten and energizes my mood! ( glad i did)
The event was packed! Jammed packed... Singaporeans loves running huh! So, i geared up my private selection of music, together with my friends we started the race. We lost one another anyways, i just kept going, alone.
Surprisingly, i made it through the run in 1.5 hours ( which i gave myself 3 hours initially to comfort myself). No heavy panting, no blackout, no cramp.. wonderful:) I put my yoga practice into use during the run--- scooped the hips, engaged the abs, shoulders and lower rib- cage depressed, long breathing for stamina ( ashtanga method really helps here), don't bother about the mini steps, keep looking ahead (
dristhi concept from ashtanga, again).
It was a great experience for me personally. Pretty surprise that how the accumulation of yoga practice over the few years had given me so much strength, that it cleared doubts on the capability of myself initially. But still, running is not my favorite... will i run again then? Why not, if its in the night again!
That night after the run, i went home and realized there was blood in my socks. One of my toe nails had shifted in, its sort of like flesh tear in the nail bed. The cause--- as we run forward, the toes in the shoes shift forward and keep bumping again the shoes- front. It didn't occur to me before--- probably i did not run long enough on my own.
My friend suggested to cut the toe nail REAL short, so the bumping will happen on the fleshy tip of the toes, not the nails.
