I guess I needed to write about this sooner or later.
Yes, I have discovered a new "drug" which keeps me high, happy and healthy. What is it you may ask? Well, it is running.
My passion for running didn't exactly start in the last 4 months, although it was only then that I started doing it very regularly. Like at least 4 or 5 times a week or even more. It first started when I was serving my NS, near the time when I was about to ROD (now ORD) and hanging around the bunk feeling bored. A couple of my platoon mates were "siao on" and started to run around the camp. I joined them on some of these and discovered that hey it was quite fun actually. That was about 16 years ago.
The love for running was further fueled in my university days at NUS, where I participated in road relays and seized opportunities to go for runs around the Kent Ridge campus, Kent Ridge Park, Pasir Panjang and West Coast areas. This still continued throughout my early working days though lazyness and hectic work commitments gradually resulted in me becoming a weekend road warrior. Nevertheless, I never gave up on this, and always looked forward to whatever opportunities I have to hit the road.
Now at close to 36 years of age I realised that regular exercise can be a potion of youth, vitality and energy. Instead of running in the evenings like I used to do, I now do it in the mornings. This I find is an ideal arrangement as it allows me to clock my miles in the cool morning air, sweat like a hog, and flex my muscles before commencing on the rigours of the workday. I have also started to get some cool new togs so that I can look more "professional" (or heow lah) as you call it while pounding the asphalt.
The icing on the cake was when I recently got GOLD for my annual IPPT test. Yes, that's $400 in the bag. It is my first time ever and I feel exuberant that I can achieve this with less than 3 months of training.
As Forrest Gump himself would have put it, I just felt like doing it.