Run Like A Kid

Every once in a while, usually during school semester break, I like to take a little breather from my hectic schedule, and go for a short retreat. No, it is not a holiday. Nor is it a vacation. Just a retreat.
Meaning that I take a break from doing the normal things I do such as work, doing house chores, ferrying the kids around, cooking and running.
What I'd do is, haul the kids to WW's apartment in KL and stay there for a few days, doing absolutely nothing but watch TV, ogle the Internet endlessly and watch movies till my eyes water.

I don't think about work, shut my office number off ( my boss knows my other number in case of emergencies), don't even cook, and I forget about running(temporarily). I do some laundry occasionally though - and a little bit of sweeping here and there because I can't fully commit to being a sloth.

It all good for the first 2-3 days : eating out 3 times a day, waving off calories, lazing around, catching up on some TV and old movies, shopping senselessly, and milling in malls without any actual purpose.
But sadly it gets old.
I get tired of pecel ayam, burgers and fast food joints. I have the attention span of a fish when it comes to watching telenovelas and drama swasta and I run out of things to read.
Sadly, I tire myself of doing nothing. And I want so much to run.

I remember one day I insisted  WW to go out for his run while I spend time doing a one miler with the kids near a lake garden. It was  a Sunday and SCKLM season which meant more runners were doing their LSDs and finishing up on their weekly mileage. And although I was a tad jealous of them being so absorbed in their training, I was still happy to be just running .

And running with the kids is another different story. Two of my kids are totally different runners. Chiam runs 1K or more daily so he is used to the constant pounding. But he's a fierce competitor and refuses to let other runners/walkers pass him. So he'll be blocking the path if he hears anyone coming from behind and I'm constantly muttering my apologies and gently pushing him aside to make way.
Adik is more of a sprinter. She runs fast briefly, gets tired, nags the rest of us to slow down, then once we're all fast walking, she'd go on sprinting again.

So it was like this
Run- sprint-block-apologize-jog- complain- halt- slow jog-block-complain- sprint-halt- jog-walk-sprint-complain- jog- and abrupt stop ( because we finally reached the playground)

And although it was only a one miler and full of drama- I totally enjoyed the run.
Free of any designated pace, free of any serious purpose, free of any intended timing.
Just run like a kid.
Highly recommended.

Post-run : Latihan membaca dan membetulkan tudung  

And with that only, I got my running fix for my so called retreat.

And today I end my 5 days break with a 5K.
You can't imagine how good that feels.
Oh , wait a minute.
You can.
:)