#37 Run in a marathon
Done with #37 in my 100-things-to-do-before-i-die list. That makes it the 5th of a hundred. A long way to go, man.
Okay, okay, so maybe I ran just a third of the way and brisk-walked the rest, but at least I still ran, didn’t I? And can I help it if I’ve never been good at running? My choice for cardio has always been the bike, stairclimber or rower. I am not a fan of the treadmill.
The reason why I joined the fun run is because Tog from my department (up until last Month anyway…now he’s Drew’s TL) kept on asking me to join the walled city marathon aka fun run. I invited Drew and Yen to join too and that was how the three of us found ourselves in Intramuros at 6am yesterday. All beginners, we signed up for 3K (there was also 5K and 10K) and upon announcement, off we went with a whole bunch of other people. “Bakit sila nagmamadali?” we jokingly said to each other when most people overtook us.
Pretty soon I began to feel dizzy and I began to wonder if it was such a good idea to undergo a physically strenuous activity merely a couple of days after I was sick in bed with fever, cough and colds. So I walked and let Drew and Yen go on ahead of me. I just ran the last few meters to the finish line.
P&G had the biggest delegation of 78 participants, and we posed for pictures before dispersing. Drew, Yen and I had breakfast at a nearby Max’s resto before heading for Mall of Asia. This is probably only my third time to the seventh largest mall in the world (as of press time). I guess it’s true what they say that people tend to take for granted those treasures that are in their own backyard. Drew and I ended up buying a Dunlop badminton racket apiece (we said we’d start playing badminton next week). Yen went home early, so Drew and I had lunch in Cafe Breton, where I had a cup of hot calamansi juice (because my throat was beginning to crack) and one of their signature crepes. Then we watched The Reaping in the centerstage cinema. I fell asleep for a few minutes in the middle of the film…my first time ever to fall asleep during a movie, not because it was boring, mind you, I was just dead tired. The film is actually interesting, but I just happen not to be a fan of gross stuff, so it won’t make its way to my favorite films list.
The next day I woke up to find my voice gone. Now I usually dread either of two things when I get colds and cough. The first is that all the colds will go to my ears and render me curled up in a fetal position with tears streaming from the corner of my eyes, groaning for my mother. Such pain my earaches cause. The second is what happened now…that I will get a sore throat. Now in the past I have gotten really sore throats, but usually I still had some voice left. But now you can’t get even a croak out of me. When I had me checked out at the clinic this morning, Doc told me I had laryngitis and that I would not get my voice back for three days then proceeded to prescribe some really expensive antibiotics. Apparently the running did me in. Eeps.
Now I know what the little mermaid felt like during those few days that she lost her voice. Made me realize how much I take my voice for granted. Among the few problems I encountered today:
(1) How to get down from the jeepney without yelling “para!” In Zamboanga it was quite natural to get the driver to stop by knocking a coin against the steel bars on the ceiling but in Manila that’s considered rude. But since I had no other choice, I did it anyway, and as expected, the driver was kind of miffed.
(2) How to have discussions with my boss. When my manager realized I had no voice, however, she told me it was okay for me to go home, really. I said I would just finish doing my BSR because the deadline is today and then go home. I ended up leaving at past 6 anyhow.
(3) How to carry on a normal conversation with my friends who are used to chatterbox me. Yen kept on teasing me by saying, “Ano, Heidz? Lakasan mo, hindi kita marinig!” At one point Gelle complained, “O bakit ang tahimik nyo?” I guess my silence can be contagious? I had to resort to sign language and texting and writing on whiteboards to get my points across sometimes. Oh the effort!
(4) How to talk to someone without him ending up whispering to me, too. I mean, if someone whispered to you, wouldn’t you end up whispering to her too?
(5) How to get people to stop laughing at your disability. My officemates kept teasing me like we were playing charades and I was “it.”
I can’t wait to get my voice back.