City to Surf - First timer

City to Surf is a charity run held annually, and this year I decided to join in the 4km event. It was not the first time that I had heard of this running event, but every year I would find some excuse or another to get out of it. Initially it was K who told us about it, when he ran 12km two years ago. Inspiring as it was, I could not forsee myself running 12km, but maybe in future, who knows? Anyway, I thought it would be good to experience the adrenaline (epinephrine!) of running in a group (No doubt my adrenoceptors are getting a good workout this weekend especially when I panicked for Monday's pharmacological test).

And indeed, it was a unique feeling... of AMAZEMENT at all the people sprinting off like crazy once the starting horn blew and the kids whizzing past me like they had all the energy in the world. of FRUSTRATION when I could not push myself to run faster in order to conserve energy to run throughout... as I had not mastered how to distribute my energy evenly through the distance. of HUMILITY through having to accept that I have leaps and bounds to improve if I wanted to run like these people. Then it suddenly occured to me that running is a bit like life, isn't it? Everyone paces themselves differently, and we cannot always thrive on comparing our speed of growth and development with someone else's. If we want to move forward, we can only do with our own efforts. Nobody can force us off track for good... if we are blocked, all we have to do is to be flexible and find a way around our obstacle(s). We won't get anywhere by just planning and thinking; instead we need to just set ourselves in the right direction and take the first few steps before letting momentum carry us off on our journey. There is no distance that cannot be covered, no destination unreachable. We limit ourselves with psychological barriers, which if overcome, can release our ability to achieve anything we want.

I've always envisioned long-distance runners to be incredibly strong mentally. We can all learn a thing or two from running, n'est-ce pas?