Run In The Sun

If I had to choose a kind of day to spend everyday, today would be the day.

Being up late yesterday night, I knew and had it planned that I would sleep in this morning. Woke up and putted around the house and took my time getting ready before I headed out to meet up with friends at Kirin for some yummy dim sum. I haven't hung out with Fred and Eddie in what seems like ages. There was also Bran, Dan and Allie. Fred had just come back from his 35 day backpacking trip around Nepal. His trip stories cracked us up. Dim sum and chinese restaurants in general are usually pretty noisy, but I swear we were the noisiest table. Haven't had one of those silly, "slap my forehead" kind of laughs in a while. Good eats and good company.

After that, I drove myself to the sea wall and found free parking. I don't know how I always luck out in free parking there. I didn't even have to circle around once. Of course, I always take the last free spot too. That alone puts a skip in my step. The sea wall was pretty packed. It was one beautiful day and everyone was out enjoying it. People walking their dogs. People taking photos. People strolling with their babies. People jogging and riding their bikes. Or just people simply sunbathing on the lawn. The view there never fails to amaze me. The sun is warm against my skin but yet there was a cool, calm breeze coming in from the water.

I took one heck of a long stroll for warm up. I have been dying to come to the sea wall for weeks. On the whole, life is good. But even when life is good, there's sometimes pesky thoughts that plague my mind. I needed to clear them. I told myself that I'd give myself the length of time spent on the seawall to think through everything and anything and then once I leave the seawall, I'm going to leave it there. 

After my warm up walk and stretches, I went for a run. The greatest thing is, even though I had planned to think and work out my thoughts to death, the moment I started running, all thoughts in my head vanish instantly. All of a sudden, my thoughts are all about running. What should my pace be? What is my breathing pattern? Ahh, this feels familiar. Run at a pace where you're still able to talk. Thinking about each pounding of the pavement. This was how it used to be. And it came back to me so naturally and unexpectedly.

This is the reason I don't run with anyone. It's my own game. My own workout. My own call. My own time.  I don't care if that 70 year old man infront of me is sprinting so much faster. I don't care when or where I'll start or finish (well, I have an idea but not to set limits).

I ran to every beat of the songs I played from my nano. Good thing Ming sent me mp3s versions of all the songs he burnt on CD. Love the (6th edition?) nano. The size of that thing is darn small. But this was the reason I bought it. It is so light and small that even if I had no pockets or fancy straps, I could simply clip it to my shirt without worrying about where it would go or whether it would fall. Music doesn't get any more portable.

Ahh, it felt good.

Once the run was done, I took another long stroll to walk it off. I spent an entire two hours on the sea wall and didn't want to leave. Then, I took my time browsing through two grocery stores. Two big bills later, I was a super duper happy camper.

I returned home with my goods and quickly took a shower before dinner with the parents.

Life is good.

(sorry, didn't carry a camera).