160- City Running

I have friends who love running through trails. Off road running and hiking possess a unique, often muddy, charm. I'll give it that.

Running through city streets, however, also does sing quite the siren song.

Years ago I told myself that I would see the world on the run. Such does not imply that I will never stop and smell the roses. Moments of reflection help make journeys worthwhile. Those are the times when emotions, tidbits of reality sink in.

"I'm here. I'm actually here."

"I made it. I finished a marathon through Brighton."

"I never thought this would happen, but hey, it's happened and I couldn't be happier."

City running involves a lot of music, and talking to one's self. Music gives your run an infectious type of cadence, a soundtrack for every moment you hammer down on concrete. The talking part does not always involve talking as in "talking per se". It involves being able to see your thoughts with utmost clarity, and being able to equate your thoughts perfectly with what is happening on the outside. Synergy. The cold, the rain, the blistering equatorial heat, the feeling of water running down your running shirt, every ache that comes with every step. Every sensation has an equivalent fragment of speech, an association with a language that only you can comprehend.

One of the perks of having lived in London was having the privilege of running through such a beautiful city for hours, days, and months on end. Even mundane segments of the metropolis- little pocket parks, thoroughfares near residential areas, back alleys near old factories, ancient tunnels, bridges over the Thames-would often give a runner enough sensory pleasure to last a lifetime.

I have also run in less glamorous places, though. Manila suburbs. Around old buildings in Taipei. In Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong. In districts far from the glitz of Singapore's central shopping and business areas. Etc. etc. There isn't anything quite like taking in a place at X kilometers per hour while in compression gear and with sports drink in hand.

Hard runs and training weeks physically exhaust me, but I NEVER grow weary of running, and of seeing the world one streetcorner, one city, and one country at a time.

I will never stop running away from living.

Doing otherwise would be ridiculous.

MC