'All I do is keep on running in my own cozy, homemade void, my own nostalgic silence. And this is a pretty wonderful thing.'
- Haruki Murakami, What I talk About When I Talk About RunningWhile I lavish her with love, D. understands that I'm not exactly a spendthrift. In fact, I'm leaning towards the opposite side of spendthrift. I wanted to squander on a pair of running shoes but felt guilty about chipping off the small amount that we just saved up for the wedding at that time. As my giver of meaning and everything I've always wanted, D. wrapped a pair of Nike Air Max last Christmas and gave it to me.
That paved a lot of new roads. For one, I discovered a way to make metaphors physical. Borrowing from Haruki Murakami, running lets me create my own wonderful, homemade void - where D. jumps along and joins me occasionally. Literally, of course, I'm running the roads - bay sides, hills, boulevards, and even cemeteries where you hear nothing but your own huffing and puffing and souls just humming you on (preferably with something like Wolfgang's Cathedral of Space blasting through the iPod).
While I think I've had some wins in life (D.being my most beautiful win), I'm used to losing and accepted it as a recurring theme. When I can't win, I thought I could aim for learning, losing gracefully, and moving forward. Running put all that in a refreshing new light. The focus is not centered on winning or losing but in defeating yourself. That comes when you learn to deal with your own adversity. That happens when you're able to command a cramping body to go farther or faster. Like what our beloved Haruki Murakami says: 'Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life - and for me, and for writing as well.'
I'm fantasizing that someone (other than D.) is actually reading this and you're probably asking now, what's this have to do with the wedding? The answer is: this is our wedding path. This is all about the building of the wedding's metaphors - physical or otherwise. This is the road we are in now. So I'm going to make a run for it.
Two-hundred twenty two kilometers (222 km) before our wedding date, February 22, 2009 (2.22.2009). The 222 km road towards 2.22.2009 starts August 31, 2009 when I completed my first 10k in the Nike Human Race (where 60 year old folks and 12 year old girls zipped past me). But at least I finished the race, got free dri-fit socks, the finisher's bracelet, and Nike had to donate to Unicef.
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By the way, I finished the 10k in 1 hour and 8 minutes, ranking 142nd in the Philippines, 24,584th in the world.
222 km is equivalent to a little over four full marathons. Of course it's something that a more serious runner could easily accomplish in less than 5 months, but I'm just a novice runner who had to count on his girlfriend to buy him a pair of running shoes.
This is for D. This all started with you and you are with me every step of the way.
