Of Kipling and a 27 mile run!

I wish I turned 13 - that way I'd only have to run 13 miles for my birthday. I bought new shoes yesterday and I always do a celebratory run in my new shoes. Now new shoes *and* my birthday is just too much to resist. Boy, do I sound like a *huge* geek. Please bear with me :-)

Anyway, as usual, I got the ugliest color available - thank you Asics. They never have a decent color for me - EVER! Since Asics dont make pink - thank god - I dont care. I got a hideous orange pair. If anyone has ever had a look at my footwear, its pretty obvious that I dont sweat these things too much.

I also turned 27 yesterday. I have spent the past 3 days eating way way way too much. *sigh*, I know I run alot, however, the excess in my personality means that I do everything to excess and unfortunately, this means eating and sometimes (only sometimes) drinking. I chalked it up to carbo-loading and set off on a 27 miler at 2am this morning. I love running! I havent done a long run in ages and my body protested - alot. The one thing you learn from running is that discomfort is never an excuse to stop. Discomfort only means that you dont do it enough and you should suck it up and do some more :-)

One of my favorite running quotes and something that I think about alot during my runs is from the poem "IF" by Kipling, my favorite author thanks to my father, who first introduced me to Kipling when I was 6. The clincher, for me, is in the last 4 lines of the poem that go "...If you can fill the unforgiving minute, With sixty seconds worth of distance run - Yours is the earth and everything thats in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!".

This poem used to be plastered on my desk right from the time I started first grade. It had been plastered on my Father's desk when he was a cadet at the NDA in India as an 18 year old. I think I was being groomed to be a certain type of person from a very young age. I am not complaining.

Thank you mister Kipling. Once again, your words teach me alot about myself :-)

27 miles this am in about 4 hours. I felt *alot* better than I felt during Sundown, although, I know I have a long way to go before I am back to where I belong in terms of speed. The smell of Durian around mile 14 made me double over and almost throw up. Sometimes Singapore annoys me SO much!!!
40 laps in the cold water as a "treat" for my legs.