Sunday, July 12, 2009

Limitations

Last night I decided to watch Twilight. I had intended to watch only a few minutes of the movie while I unwind to get ready for bed, as I've heard from some friends that it's not a particularly good movie—they said that there's nothing special in it. Unfortunately, my curiosity got the better of me and I ended up watching the whole movie. By the time I got into bed, it was almost midnight.

When the alarm clock rang at 5am this morning, I had to drag myself out of bed. I was still feeling tired and sleepy, but I had to go for my long run at the Likas jogging track. And today, according to the training programme, I had to do 20km.

At times like this morning, I felt like giving my long run a miss. It's not like I'm aiming for a big prize money or fame. In fact, if I can finish the 42km on October 11, I'd be getting a finisher medal and probably a T-shirt with some fancy words on it so that I can boast to some friends that I've run the marathon. It seems like so much agony to go through for such a small returns. The training can be quite punishing most of the time, and each time I do the long run I really have to struggle to complete it!

This will be my very first full marathon, and I don't know if I am ever gonna do it again if I can conquer it this time round. I suppose if my body allows me, I will keep it going. It's a great challenge and it's just not like me to give up so easily. If I must, I will limp or crawl to the finish line.

I bumped into an old school mate this morning at the jogging track shortly after I completed my 20km. I hadn't seen him in ages. He was doing his brisk walking together with his kids. We started talking about the good 'ol days in school and then we finally talked about the inevitable subject—that I'm running my first full marathon this year. He gave me that look, if you know what I mean.

He said, "Cornelius, you should realise that you are not young any more. You're, what, in your mid-forties now? It's not such a good idea to pick up this marathon thing at this age. If you must try, you should've done it years ago." And then he added, "You should learn to know your limitations at your age."

Well, I suppose he has a point there. Obviously I can't compare myself to those teenagers who never seem to run out of energy for this kind of activities. And I have nothing to prove, really. Who knows, I might just drop dead from exhaustion one of these days.

Then again, I thought to myself, if he can do it at his age, then I should at least try to do it too. If I can achieve 10% of what he has achieved, then I would consider that I have achieved a great deal.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think your friend is so wrong! Age does not limit us so long as we are willing to do the hard work and are willing and able.. I subscribe to a magazine called Runners World, and they just had an article about a 70 year old man who runs like 10 marathons a year or something.. They also showed a 60 year old woman who has been running since she was in her 20's. She was the first female to ever run in a marathon! I think age does not limit us unless we let it.. Good for you for competing in a marathon!! Your in your 40's? Psshhh, most of the contributors in my magazine are in their 40's,, No Sweat! LOLz..

Cornelius said...

Well, not that I can't use a bit of an encouragement, Sarah.

No sweat, huh? Well, I sure felt half dead and fully drenched in sweat!... HAHAHA!

Anonymous said...

Are u planning to update Riddle Addicts any time sooner?

Cornelius said...

Wow!... that's quite a surprise question, my anonymous friend! In fact, another friend asked me that same question recent via a text message.

The Riddle Addict feature was an experiment kinda thing in this blog. I wanted to gauge the interest from my readers. Unfortunately, after a while I realised that only 2 persons were keen on the riddles. So I felt it's not a very worthwhile use of my time and efforts.

The other reason is that as I was doing the riddles, I thought of some interesting ideas too. I was tempted to throw some of them into my riddles, but I wanted to save them for an actual treasure hunt. That is where I can show off my creativity!... hehehe. So if you're fated to join my hunt one of these days, you will find some interesting Qs! But even if you can't join, I'm bound to share some of the interesting ones here.

That said, I want to reiterate here that my questions are solvable even if they appear unsolvable!

Take this example which only 2 teams solved in the KK Challenge 4:

Q) AMDR?

A) RESTORAN SERIBU DINAR


A question which appears totally meaningless, yet with methodical approach, can be solved quite quickly.