the evening run.

a click of the watch set to 35min and off he went.
without any warmup, he started slow, with the intention of doing an easy run in his mind.
as he crossed the first street, he felt good and picked up his pace a little. initially he wanted to run in the direction towards geylang east but he followed the green man at the traffic light and crossed whichever junction that was available at that time.
direction now is towards geylang
"oh no don't tell me i'm goin to run to national stadium again?"
at the next junction, he followed the green man again and crossed.
direction now is towards geylang east, only that this time it's on the other side of geylang east.
direction now is towards paya lebar.
off he went.step by step.left to right and right to left.from the concrete pavements to the grass and sandy soil on the sides to the road.
no one else is running except him.the constant dodging of the pedestrians almost brought him to the point of irritation until he could find a peaceful stretch where he could go relatively straight.
passed paya lebar.towards geylang serai and eunos.
once again pedestrains were the constraint, pushing him to the roads running in the opposite direction to the cars.
passed eunos.towards kembangan
"damn i thought i told myself not to run to kembangan already?"
but still his legs carried him till he reached lorong G.
that familiar junction and coffee shop at the side of the road awakened his senses.
a right turn and he was running towards that house.
passed that house and made a u-turn back.
"empty.there's no use in going to that house when she's miles away"
his watch read 15mins left.
"damn i'm past my halfway mark of 17min.gotta speed up a lil to get back home"
initially he had a lazy easy run in his mind.but he can't resist the idea of running a negative split whereby the second half of the run is done in a shorter time compared to the first half, meaning that you're actually training harder when your muscles are already tired from the first half.
off he went, trying to increase his cadence and so did his rate of breathing.
his calves were already aching badly at this time but he still had to carry on.
"what separates a satisfactory run from a lousy run is that at the end of the run, no matter how wound up you are.you have the timing on your watch to prove it"
as he was running, he thanked God for everything.
thanked Him for legs so that he could do what he likes to do, which is obviously running
thanked Him for health so that he could do what he likes to do
thanked Him for lungs so that he could do what he likes to do
and then his memory brought him back to the 15km run that he did last time.
throughout the whole run,it was painful and tiring but in his mind, all he saw was Jesus hung at the cross.
"if Jesus could endure all the way to the cross"
"what's this little physical pain compared to what he did?"
"i am God's beloved, in whom He is well pleased with me"
with this fresh revelation, he completed the 15km and ran an extra 2km due to some error in the marshalling, but he still came in first in his category.
back to the run, everytime he committed the painful part of the run to Him, His strength always carried him faster in his steps towards the finish.
back to geylang east, aljunied mrt where foreigners abound
dodging them brought him to the point of irritation again
he had to get past this particular street fast to get back home.
and he did eventually.
time then was 7 in the evening.
the sky was bluish black.

another run in the bag.