When you have a good day, do enjoy it… to the max

When you have a good day, do enjoy it… to the max

It is long since I looked at the COVID19 numbers.  Do I even have the name of the website where I used to check the numbers from?  Or did I close that tab on my web browser never to reopen it?  I will be pretending if I were to bury my head in the sand, so to speak, and ignore the corona pandemic, in the guise of ‘being tired’.  There is no taking a break until we have corona defeated.  

This is not the time to be tired.  We have to keep keeping on.  We have to continue taking preventive measures that have been proved to work – masking, distancing, washing, vaccinating.  That is the only way that at some point we shall get out of the corona world and take that long awaited break.  The numbers shall not go down on their own without the participation of each one of us.  These numbers* standing at 174,964,775 infections, 3,771,572 deaths and 158,454,195 recoveries globally are huge.  Even the motherland has bigger numbers, being 173,661, 3,345 and 118,933 respectively.

*source: worldometers

I therefore feel for people when they behave ‘tired’ and walk around without a mask or a care in the world.  I feel for people when they have to congregate and throw away that ‘social-distance’ vocabulary.  It is human. I understand.  I judge not.  

I observed all these going-ons as I did my Monday run.  I was just about the 2km mark at Kabete Polytechnic when I observed the crowd of people that looked like students gather around the Poly gate, talking loudly, holding hands, hugging and all.  They were just being human.

I was hardly ten minutes into the run by this point in time, and I was feeling quite good.  The feel-good had started just as I took the first run step at about three on this Monday, three days ago.  It is long since I started a run feeling on top of my game.  I knew that there would be a special run in the offing on this Monday, if this feeling continued.  

However, there were two milestones that would determine if this was ‘the day’.  The first would be about the sixth kilometre as I faced the uphill after the river on Kapenguria road, towards Kabete Children home, and secondly, at the tank, when I emerge from the Uni fam to join Kanyariri road on the 12k mark.  If I would be feeling this good at those two stages, then I was going to break a run record on this sunny afternoon.

I was running quite effortlessly as I made these observations, all the way to Ndumbo market, where the roadsides were already filled-up with kiosks and buyers, while the remaining main tarmac road was blocked by matatus that had stopped in the middle of the tarmac and were now beckoning for passengers to town.  I was forced to squeeze within the sea of humanity, to just pass by that Ndumbo junction.  I knew that I would emerge from this very junction about one-and-a-half hours later, on my way back on Kanyariri road.  For now, I had to proceed on with Kapenguria road and aim for that first milestone that would start determining how my run would go.

The run continued.  My legs were quite light, my arms did not seem laboured, my breathing remained on the normal range, and even my stomach was not paining on this day.  The tummy was paining terribly on the last run of Thursday, four days before this Monday run.  I persevered with the pain for over ten kilometres in the course of that run.  It was not comfortable, though I still finished the run in an under 5-min average.  I was having none of that today.  I was surely having a good run day and there was no doubt about it.

I approached the downhill after Wangari Maathi institute at a relatively slow pace.  I did not want to sprint it off.  I knew that there was a hill coming up after the river.  I wanted to have enough energy reserves for that 1km of hill.  A downhill sprint would not do if I wanted a steady uphill run.  The strategy worked and I did the uphill with little effort.  I found myself emerging at Lower Kabete road and took the left turn, that would lead me to the Mary Leakey route then the Uni farm.  I was running on a route that I had used so many times that I could be blindfolded and would still make it.

The feel good would continue, with hardly any aches, even as I approached and passed by the 12km mark as I emerged at ‘the tank’ to join Kanyariri road.  

“This is it,” I did selftalk, as I started the 2km run on Kanyariri road, that would lead me to the U-turn on Wangige road, then back.

It is long since I enjoyed myself this much on a run circuit.  This was one of those rare occasions.  Such occasions are few and far between.  I just let myself go and let myself enjoy the run, the environment, the observations, the jostling for space with motorbikes at the potholed sections of the road.  I even battled for the right of way with the vehicles on the Waiyaki way as I crossed over towards Kabete Poly on my way back.  It was an enjoyable day and run.

It therefore did not come as any surprised when I finished the 24k run in just under 2hours, 1.58.31 to be exact.  It was a great day, and I am glad that I enjoyed the run to the fullest.  I know that it may take months to get such an opportunity again.  However, since tomorrow never comes anyway, why can’t you just enjoy every moment to the fullest as it unfolds and as it presents itself?  You never know if you would get another chance that has all the right combination of right conditions.  If you get it in the future, then good for you as you re-enjoy yourself.  If you do not, then still good for you that you already enjoyed what you had.  It is a win-win whichever way you look at it.

WWB, the coach, Nairobi, Kenya, June 9, 2021