Why Am I Running

I guess the question on the minds of many will be
"Jeff, U siao ah?. Why the F$#% are you trying to kill yourself?"

Yes, I am slightly overweight. 85kgs, 1.77m, YES I am a lazy bum

Yes too to my old friends who knew that I used to run competitively in school days.
But that was mainly 400m. The oldies will most probably remember how I will try my very best to siam the Macritchie Runs on Sundays. Even when doing some "slighty longer" intervals like YewSeng's 4x800 or 4x1km I will fall out after 3 reps.. :-)

Well frankly, I dun have 2 hoots also about why am I doing this.

Let me think of a list of reasons.

1. My Dad,

This man, I respect. I remember senior Mr Wee picking up running when I was in early primary school. He just quit smoking then and started goign to the old Ang Mo Kio Garden to jog in the morning and my mum, sis and I will go and do Taiji Qigong 18 stances.

Fast forward 20 years, 6 mths ago, he was running for 1hour, 1.5 hours... like whenever he has time.. which still works out to 2-3 times a week.

He is registered for the half marathon this year. We ran 10KM last year and he basically ran away from me with a good kick at the last 2km, eventually finishing almost 5mins ahead, just >1hr.

I am very sure he will finish his Half Marathon this year and hopefully, he will catch the bug and run the full with me next year.

2. Itchiness

It was about Jne this year when the organization I am working for was planning on their 150th yr celebrations. At the same time, my CEO had planned for a visit to my branch.
I was thinking, oh well, what better way to celebrate 150yrs, might as well see if I can get my whole branch to collectively run 150km for the SCB marathon. since I have 16 staff, It should have been a no brainer.

Well, problem was, Dear CEO decided that the branch was rather enthusiatic about this and threw in a charity challenge to give $10 for every kilometer that the branch ran.

That seriously got me thinking for almost 1 week before I threw down the gauntlet and registered for the full marathon.

3. A belief inside me hat nothing is impossible if you strive nad work for it.

I did not really train my ass out for this.. seriously, I could have doen more training and be less worried now. I am sure I will finish. It is just a matter of how much I will suffer.
It started off well, we arranged for Happy Friday runs at Hong Lim Park where I started with 20mins runs and all the way to 1hr run within 1mth of starting the training.

Shit happens, I fell sick and stopped for 2 weeks. thereafter, the momentum just disappeared and it took the "Run for a Cause" to get me started again. The 10km was a killer, I had never imagine that I will suffer so much in a 10KM run. On hindsight. thank goodness it was in October and the base was still there. I started my training again after that. Not sufficient enough in my opinion as I definately havent had enough mileage. Never had done >35km in a week, Havent done a 20km run yet. But I am sure my left and right feet will not fail me on 7th Dec 2008