Just a Little Rewind...

One of my favorite posts from my Multiply blog. Aside from sentimental reasons, a bigger impetus prompts me to post this here.

I can't believe it's been almost 2 years....




In Love... Again... Finally :)
Winna Altamira
20 August 2008

Enough with the teasing, I’m blushing already! Haaay, fighting it is futile. I’m in too deep. After 5 long years of waiting, I’m in love all over again!

Call me emo but I have been having sleepless nights since I started running again. Oh, the energy of the after! And then I would joyfully await the next morning to be able to get in my Nike’s again to feel that strangely familiar high… oh man!

***
I started running in 3rd Year College. And I ran every (I mean EVERY) single day since then. I ran when I’m happy, I ran when I’m in a rut. I ran when the weather’s perfect, I ran come hell or high water. I even ran on evenings I’m supposed to be studying for an exam. Running helped me in so many ways. It became my daily dose of getting in touch with myself. I wrote in another runner's blog once--

Running taught me that the finish line is just pure imagination
That beyond it, life is more challenging
And beautiful

Running taught me to stop making excuses and just keep going

Running taught me that every little thing in life that is worth my time,
is equally worth my sweat

Running taught me that I have to be meaner, hungrier, tougher

Running taught me to take delight in little things—the wind blowing against my face, the sun on a perfect day, each step I take that takes me closer to my goal

Running taught me that as a woman, I can do things people did not expect me to be capable of doing

Running taught me that I could always run free…


I have to give Los Baños credit for it. I love my playground then. For anybody who has let him/herself run loose in the pavements of LB, each stride is sheer euphoria—fresh air, challenging uphill-downhill course, green everywhere, and the assurance of not being mugged in dark alleys or chased by an askal. Oh those were 2 of the best years of my life… having the whole running track in my backyard.

Come graduation day in 2003, I knew things were about to change.

2008… Five years after, I’ve lost the cuts and form of my arms and legs, added an inch on my waist and became less conscious of my food and alcohol intake. Then in it hit me... I miss running! I miss the endorphin rush! I miss cutting through headwind and zoning out from this world for at least an hour…

See, I did give other sports a chance. During the course of my withdrawal from the runner’s high, I engaged in/learned/tried to learn ultimate frisbee, surfing, badminton, mountaineering, diving, and poker (okay, not exactly along the lines of…) but just like parting from your first great love that took you 18 years to find (learned swimming, Tae Kwon Do, soccer and Chinese garter when I was younger), that one is irreplaceable.

Until I’ve had enough of flirting with running again, I decided to jump in and embrace it like crazy. And I couldn’t be happier. It feels so good to be reunited! I still can’t run as far and as fast as I used to. But like how I got started with it in the first place, it will come.

I’m running a 10-Kilometer race in 11 days (http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/). I’m still not in proper shape for it and really, I don’t even remember the last time I ran the whole distance. But the will is strong and the legs, lungs and heart are cooperative. Couldn’t see any reason why I can’t cross that finish line (alive).

And just like falling in love all over again, you’re willing to take the hurts that come with it again-- blisters, twisted ankles, arch pain, dead toe nails (that take a year to grow back), etc. But these would not come without the promise that running, and ultimately my body, will love me back... again...