a little Xtra

Go the distance

I hated the long distance running,
Felt like i was caught in this endless obstacle course,
where it was a constant battle between mind and muscle
To put one foot forward,
To suck in another ragged breath
To try to beat the clock to get that grade in the Phy Ed test.

I hated not being able to finish it asap
Hated the fact i never could keep up.
Hated that woozy feeling when i stumbled across the finish line
Hated the timing the teacher announced..

I remember quite vividly the feeling of utter joy when i jogged the dreaded 2.4 km during JC2.
when i told myself - never again.

But I still ran in Melb
Carlton gardens, Flagstaff gardens, uni track
Princess park.
4 semesters of running,
sometimes on my own, sometimes with my frens from the Mumsg, sometimes just with my MD or Discman.
Still didn't like jogging. it was more of an obligation to exercise that made me strap on my shoes and get my fat ass out of my house.


And one day,
when i was wearing that silly shirt with the 3 happy yellow faces that said.
" see no..., hear no... speak no..."
and huffing and puffing the last stretch of pavement back to my house,

I ran into you.

" Nice shirt."
" er... thanks, " I stared at the yellow smiley faces. " it aint' mine tho'. I got it off my mom."


so for the first time,
joggin wasn't so much of a chore anymore.
I looked forward to the end of the lectures, when u would drop by and ask,
" wanna go joggin?"
Less days were spent pluggin into my mp3 player and plodding teh whole 3 km by myself,
more days were spent having an out of breath conversation with you throughout the whole round on the dirt trek.


Now i jog alone once again,
with my sister sometimes,
sometimes with my mom.

But i love joggin now. i love the wind in my hair, the satisfaction of finishing the long journey, the steadiness of the whole run, the freedom to think, and to remember the times round the dirt trek in Princess park.

I keep asking myself, wat if?
What if i never went joggin that day,
what if u never went joggin that day.
Or if we 'd been on opposite sides of the trek.

We'd probably just jogged along our own little paths and kept on going.
Karma is such a wierd thing.
It's scary how much a small , seemingly insignificant choice we make, can result in such a huge difference in the paths we thread.

So Lemme go dig out the T shirt with the yellow smiley faces,
And wait 4 you opposite the Monash Pharmaco college.