For The Hardcore At Heart

The picture above says it all about the marathon. One race, a thousand reasons... and for the hardcore at heart. Rema Chai, 1st time marathoner, pulled a tyre, cans and other recylables to raise awareness of environmental issues (a standard car tyre weighs anywhere between 5 to 10 kg by the way). A colleague of mine asked me how was my weekend. I told him I ran the marathon. He went "Holy Moly!". Yeah, bit the bullet, did not train, took my stiff back and almost-recovered knee to the Esplanade at 6am yesterday morning and gave the 42.195km whatever I had. It was a humbling experience and a priceless lesson on what it means to not give up. My colleague told me I am hardcore. I told him the Kenyan runners are the real hardcores, running in record time at their blistering pace. It is really an awesome sight seeing them Africans run up close. But he made a rather good point in reply - "For them it's their bread & butter, it's the ones who don't train and do it anyway who are hardcore." - The line can be very fine between insanity and inspiration but I'll take his compliment. Thanks Lawrence. Of all the different characters that ran the race, the ones who really left an impression on me were the couples that literally went the distance together, side by side, for some hand in hand. There was this young couple that ran and stopped whenever either felt the pain and fatigue. I saw them at the 30km mark where both were evidently struggling with cramps and strains but they managed to hang on and finish the race. They caught up with my cluster of runners near the end and crossed the finish line just behind us. Regardless of whether they were married or dating, in an age where words often speak louder than actions, it was really sweet and heart-warming to see 2 people physically committing themselves through sweat and toil. There may be hope after all where 'for better or for worse till death do us part' is concerned.