RIFLE RANGE BOY: What wakes you up?

It has been over two years since our small exercise group disbanded. It is often said that familiarity breeds contempt. Everyone took each other for granted, or they grew too big for their boots. In the eagerness to self-motivate and right the wrongs, ego got in the way. The bottom line is that everyone has flown the nest in pursuit of other things in life.

So, what is the difference between exercising in a group and alone? For one, the fun factor is eliminated. There is nothing like having many people with the same mental illness flock together to do the same thing week in and week out and expecting a different outcome, to quote Einstein, if he actually said that.

I take a special kind of motivation to push the sorry ass up in the early mornings to start the exercise. If previously the motivation was to keep up with the rest of the gang, now it is just you, yourselves and your sorry ass.

During training, there is a push and pull factor that tickles the ego to outperform oneself. Sadly, when one is training alone, this is missing. The worst part is that the inner demons remind us to slow down and not to overdo it. It takes a different kind of something to slay that beast.

Given that background, I registered for this year's Powerman duathlon, as I have been doing since 2020. This will be my fourth participation, having been shelved for a couple of years due to COVID.

After sending and parking my bicycle in Putrajaya and moving around with the competition wristband, my wife asked me, "So, all running and torturing your body gives you happiness?”

“Oh yes,” was my reply. "As much as you enjoy going to the temple, meeting the same friends, updating the obituary list, doing the same rituals, eating the same vegetarian food and coming back in bliss, feeling blessed.

As for me, the competition went smoothly. A 5 km run was followed by a 30 km cycle around Putrajaya, then it concluded with another 5 km run. Over the years, my speed has been steadily declining. It could be due to the ageing process or perhaps a lack of peer pressure to motivate me.

Come to think of it, even at the finishing line, finishers were served the same snacks that the organisers had been providing for donkey's years - a dry O'Brien sandwich, a Cavendish banana, and 100-plus isotonic drinks to wash it down, along with a finisher's medal.

https://www.riflerangeboy.com/2022/11/the-things-you-do.html

https://www.riflerangeboy.com/2023/06/life-is-battlefield.html