Just Shut Up and Run

Just Shut Up and Run.

I just saw a joke recently. A man walks into a room full of fit guys that are strangers. Can he tell who has completed an Ironman? He doesn't have to. The Ironman guy will tell him. Do this apply to also marathoners? Where we have been considered crazy maniacs that wake up very early in the morning to run in the dark, in the rain and even in the hot sun. I just did my 30km. My last long run before tapering for Island Ocean Marathon, Langkawi. It was supposed to be 32km but the hot weather for these two weeks is just unbearable. At the end, I can only endure a 30km run and a few shades darker when I finished.

The last week when I did my 25km, a Malay guy saw me running in the hot sun and told me "Kuat"(strong, in Malay). This is what I called a one word encouragement. So endurance athlete considered super humans? Of course, we are just an average Joe but we just persevere and complete the distances laid down by the program. But after a 30km run on Saturday, my calf is still feeling the strain. The feeling is like I just completed a marathon. The pain, the heat, the mental strength and the soreness are all there. The only difference I could recover much quickly compared to my 30km long run in my first marathon. But really who cares that you have gone through the agony and joy of running marathon?  For a casual runner doing 3 -5 km is already great to them. For marathoners, 3 - 5km, my weekday run is double that distance. A casual runner won't bothered about fueling, distance markers, hydration, GPS watches, energy gels, running gear, chafing, blisters, black toe nails, LSD and so..on....so the list goes on. Running jargon that is so alien to them.

I have slowly learned that don't tell unless you are asked. But when we asked we just talk like we are running a marathon. Most people are probably bored when you tell them. But a lot of people have also bored us with their conversation on the neighbour's gossip, their dogs, their religion or even the best durians. So what is wrong if we let them have a taste of their own medicine and bored them with running. And when we tell them we plan our races for a whole year and holidays are scheduled not to be in conflict with our race days, they will be thinking that some companies don't even do a yearly plan and we have a yearly running calendar.

Running can be an obsession. Actually not only running. Anything can be an obsession. Some people are just obsessed with work. They work ,work ,work. So we run, run, run. When I was looking at the races and decide which one to participate, I have to really not get carried with races and more races. It will take away just the fun of running. But seriously, I think we runners Just have to Shut Up and Run ! And deal with this thing called the obsession of running.