July 3, 2009 · 1:10 am

One Chance

 One Chance

“Our spaceship known as Earth does not have any passengers.  As residents of Earth, we are all crewmembers of this spaceship.” – “Give the Planet a Sporting Chance,” Japanese Olympic Committee Sport and Environment Commission

 

The great thing about living on this planet is that we all have a choice.  We can forge our own path and if we are lucky enough, figure out what it is which makes us happy and actually have the opportunity to do what we are most passionate about.  As competitors, our sole focus is that of the next big game or race.  As working individuals, an ongoing project, as homeowners, preparing for the family’s meals—all of which are important functions and which definitely contribute to making our world better and more interesting. 

 

We also make a lot of mistakes along the way, which we hopefully learn from and which are, of course, part and parcel of the human experience.  Personally, I love my life so far and I feel extremely blessed on so many occasions.  I get to do what I like best and work and play with people whom I can relate to best—athletes.  Just like everyone else, I make many boo-boos, but I recover from them and most of the time get another shot at improvement, which is a most convenient and beautiful process in my opinion.

 

But there are times that we only get one chance to do things the right way.  And when we fail, there is just no way to go back and rewind the clock.  Like when you neglect your hydration during one of the biggest races of your life, cramp up, and miss a spot on the podium by mere milliseconds.  Even if you play the scene over and over in your head, it is done and you cannot do anything about it anymore.  Tough, but that’s how it is.

 

I went to Tokyo and other parts of Japan last November for a Study Tour Project for Leaders of Asian Youth Sports organized by the Japan Sports Association.  My friend from the National Rowing and Wushu Team, Jercyl Lerin and I were sent there by the Philippine Olympic Committee to interact and exchange knowledge with 27 other Asian representatives.  Our main topic of discussion was Sports and Environment.  All of us were asked to present something which was relevant to our country with regards to the subject matter.  We reported on what our own nations were doing (or not doing) to better the state of our environment.  We showed beautiful pictures of progress and painful portraits of destruction.  Our Japanese hosts were tremendously sincere in sharing their well-thought of programs and instilled in us a strong sense of urgency and advocacy primarily as citizens of our planet as well as influential sports leaders.  Needless to say, I was moved beyond expectations. 

 

Personally, I have always viewed myself as someone who did her part, however tiny, in helping to save the environment, even before it became a “trendy” thing to do so.  I joined HARIBON Foundation in my university and we planted a couple of trees and did some clean-ups here and there.  I have a habit to reject plastic bags from the cashier when I shop and just put the items in my purse when possible.  We have a compost pit in the backyard. 

 

But now I feel the burden and a burning desire to play a more active role in this campaign.  If I were to bring back home a single nugget of insight from this particular trip of mine, it would be this:  whatever your profession may be, it is your business to save Mother Earth.  You cannot ignore Global Warming just because you don’t have snow in your country and cannot see that it is melting.  You cannot ignore the denudation of the forests just because you live in the city and do not think that it is relevant to you.  You cannot keep wasting water just because you are far removed from the desert and have an abundant supply of it for now.

 

What I love most about my sport, triathlon, is that I get to see some of the most magnificent places on this planet.  I love swimming in azure waters and traveling to the most exotic beaches.  I love feeling the wind on my face and rolling on unique terrain when I ride my bike.  I love breathing fresh air and discovering new trails when I run.  I never take these for granted, even for a minute. 

 

Sadly though, most people do.  We have become too preoccupied with trivial things to even bother with something huge but isn’t really concrete to us.  But the fact is, environmental degradation is real, and it’s here.  And it involves each and every one of us. 

 

We only have One Planet—there is no Planet B.  And we only have one chance to do it right for our children and future generations.  Don’t be a spectator.  Be an MVP for Mother Earth.  You’ll be rewarded with more than just a trophy.

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July 3, 2009 · 1:07 am

Halfway Between Pain and Pleasure

Halfway Between Pain and Pleasure Nov 21, ’07 11:27 PM
for everyone

Last night, as I was trying to execute a complicated pose in my yoga class, the instructor mentioned something that caught my attention.  She said, “find that point between pain and pleasure in your stretch.”  A few of us gifted with more lively imaginations giggled, but it was the perfect way to describe that asana, and that got me to thinking what a very thin line it was between the two. 

 

I also recall reading a study published in a magazine a few years ago about the so-called, elusive “runner’s high.”  Curiously, it could only be achieved at a pace that was neither too easy nor too difficult for the person running.

 

Is this how it should be?  Is this the key to finding balance in everything we do?  Is this why the Buddhist teaching which shows us “The Middle Path” so important for us to understand?

 

In sports, if you slack off and have too many easy days, you can’t expect a good result.  But if you push way too hard, you can either get injured or will be just plain tired on the day of the big event and can’t perform as well.  And if you still insist on doing this over and over it would surely lead to extreme fatigue and burnout.

 

When is enough enough anyway?  Sans a heart rate monitor, speedometer, power output meter and other training devices, are we all equipped with an inner alarm that tells us when to keep pushing and when to stop?

 

Of course we are.  We are the masters of what is good for us.  Now if only we would listen.  I myself have wasted many a racing season because I would foolishly ignore my intuition and follow what others are doing because it sounded like it worked for them.  Comparing yourself to other people too much can be detrimental.  And this goes both ways—for I discovered that for me to do well I would have to do more than the normal share of long workouts, whereas for some people, short and sweet seems to do it for them.

 

Lance Armstrong (and just when you thought I would go through this whole article without mentioning him, eh), while being interviewed for a major international publication once, was asked what sort of pleasure he derived from all that hard work which he put into his training and racing.  He couldn’t understand the question and requested for it to be repeated a couple of times.  It wasn’t till later that the interviewer realized—pain was Lance’s pleasure.  Again, very thin line.  Driving himself onto this extremely high threshold makes sense to him though, and we all know that he has reaped huge successes for believing in himself, trusting in his instincts and ignoring the naysayers who kept telling everyone what could not be done. 

 

Find your balance.  Strive to be the very best version of yourself because you just might be surprised how far this will take you.  Testing your limits can be a truly rewarding endeavor. But most of all, take pleasure in the whole experience.

 

And if doing what you like the most means eliciting stares from strangers who conclude that you are one of the crazies from your weird whooping and grunting sounds on the treadmill, then so be it.  Hey, they called Galileo crazy once but he was on to something wasn’t he?

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July 3, 2009 · 1:05 am

The Flip Side of the Coin: A Tale of Two Wheels

The Flip Side of the Coin: A Tale of Two Wheels  Aug 6, ’07 11:14 AM
for everyone

The Flip Side of the Coin: A Tale of Two Wheels

 

It was one of those days.  You know, when you just have sooo much to do, are swamped with deadlines, barraged by phone calls, plagued with pending matters.  And then you end up being too overwhelmed to accomplish anything.  Aarrghh.  Just as I was staring blankly at my computer, my good friend and training companion sent me an SMS, at 9pm, to be exact.  The message read: “Hey, you wanna go mountain biking early tomorrow?” I read it one more time just to be certain.  After which I blinked, and without knowing the details, replied, “Sure!”

 

The thing is, we weren’t even mountain bikers, nor did we own mountain bikes.  We knew how to bike, yes, but we were roadies.  For the sake of those who can’t distinguish one from the other, roadies only cycle on paved road (asphalt and cement), and mountain bikers ride on all sorts of rough terrain.  Huge difference. In terms of bike frame type, wheels, the presence/ non-presence of shocks, apparel choices (earth-toned versus screamingly vibrant jerseys) among other things.

 

But I had great trust in my friend and knew that she could pull this one off and that we would be able to borrow two complete sets of gear and equipment just in time for that group trail ride.  So there I was, up at 4am, having resolved to ditch work the night before, with just about two and a half hours of zzz’s.  Such are my decision-making skills sometimes—not exemplary, really.

 

To my defense, in my experience, behind every crazy plan lies an equally inspired and wonderful opportunity to have fun, and this simple formula of mine may not be risk-free, but 99% of the time, it works out, and I end up having a blast.  And it was tricky at first, what with me tensing up on the brakes and falling, and my friend squealing when we passed a slippery path and each time we had to go over complex single track trails.  By the end of the ride though, even if we were both definitely still amateurs, we got the hang of it and I honestly couldn’t believe that I had waited that long to get on that mountain bike trail. It was like learning to ride again for the very first time—I felt like a kid.  Rolling through yellow green cornfields and red earth under the clear blue sky drastically changes ones’ state of mind, and mine was a far cry from the frazzled shape it was in just a few hours back.

 

A typical roadie group ride for me nowadays is more of the controlled kind—we have our set speeds, cadence, and routes.  We time everything, we are aware of our caloric and fluid intake, our wattage, our heart rates, and when we are done all is nice and neat and mud-free.  Nothing wrong with that, and the truth is, I can’t deny that I do love speed, I love riding in the peloton (a big group of cyclists), and I love the sound of carbon wheels zipping by smoothly.  That is who I am, and part of what makes me happy, and I wouldn’t know what to do if someone stole my road bike from me (oh, hello, someone actually did, but I digress).

 

For once, however, it was so refreshing to see how “the other side” does it.  Yup, you read it right—a lot of you may not be aware of it, but mountain bikers and road bikers come from two different cultures, and in a lot of cases do not even like each other.  For example, I’m the type of cyclist who normally says hi to other riders, but (and am not proud of this) if a fellow on a mountain bike passes by, I do tend to ignore him and if I don’t, I am not as enthusiastic in my greeting.  And it’s not only me, that’s just how everyone else behaves.  Why? I don’t know.  

 

Maybe it comes from not knowing enough about the other.  To everyone else who isn’t really into cycling, it seems like a cyclist is a cyclist is a cyclist.  Right? Am afraid not. People judge one another.  Because of hairstyle, skin color, fashion sense, and other petty things—in our case, it’s the choice of ride.  It really does sound strange and inappropriate, written clearly like that.  Your wheels define your personality type, and therefore you are automatically boxed into a certain category. 

 

I think all this is but an extremely minute sample of how we earth-dwellers should learn to co-exist and respect one another.  If BMX bikers, mountain bikers, and road bikers, can learn to share their love of two wheels together, they can learn to play together.  In the recent ESPY Awards, the Peace Players International, whose advocacy is to eliminate the warring Protestants and Catholics in the UK, stated that if people can learn to play together, they can learn to live together.  And they use sports activities as a vehicle to encourage the two sides to interact.  It appears to be very simplistic, but on a grander scale, applied to states, nations, and continents, you can see that it does have its place in paving the way for reconciliation.

 

As for me and my friend, we’re just gonna hop on our rides, let our hair fly freely, hang with our new-found bike buddies, and keep exploring new terrain.  Because so far, we like the view on the other side too.  Peace, man.

 

*Thanks to Anthony and Tony of Kanin Club in Paseo de Sta. Rosa, Poch, and their very accommodating mountain biking group for taking Pia and I in so readily.

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July 3, 2009 · 1:03 am

A Week of Ice Kacang, Futsal, and Five Colored Rings*

A Week of Ice Kacang, Futsal, and Five Colored Rings May 21, ’07 2:29 AM
for everyone

A Week of Ice Kacang, Futsal, and Five Colored Rings*

By Ani Karina S. de Leon

 

There are certain things in a person’s life that tend to create an impact on how he lives the rest of it.  These catalysts or triggers could be significant events, exciting places, or special people.  Or, if you’re really lucky, it could be all of the above at once.

 

Last month, I was fortunate enough to represent the Philippines in the 10th National Olympic Academy Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  There were around 70 participants, half of whom flew in from all parts of the world and half of whom were Malaysians.  Each one of us was below 35 years of age, was a sports leader or training to be one, and most importantly, each one of us was eager to make a difference for the betterment of sports in our respective countries.  An idealistic and formidable task, sure, but since we were all young and energetic I suppose it came with the territory.

 

So what was the objective of bringing us all to this convention?  Quite a lot, in fact, but the main aim was to imbibe the ideal of OLYMPISM into our hearts and minds, and from thereon the rest were details.  Honestly, I didn’t even know that such a word existed, but upon learning that it did, it was unsurprisingly easy for me, being an athlete for most of my life, to recognize the concept.  As a matter of fact, as I got to understand it more, I knew that I was very familiar with it because I had been practicing it throughout my career.  And for the first time the session gave it value, and for me this mattered a lot.  You see, I always tend to make analogies between sports and life experiences simply because it is something that I know best to do.

 

According to Mr. Chua Ah Tok, NOA Director of Malaysia, sporting education is the best and most effective tool available to educators the world over to help in forming morally and physically robust adolescents (and eventually adults), and that the age old motto of Olympism- Citius, Altius, Fortius, applies not just to sports but to everything we do. 

 

Citius: faster, not only in running, but also in the sense of swift perception.  Altius:  higher, not only with respect to an inspired aim, but also in the sense of setting a superior benchmark for the individual.  Fortius: stronger, not only in contest, but also in the struggle for existence.

 

Such is the magic that the Olympic Games can cast upon us, and for those particular two weeks every four years, we are spellbound. The five rings which display our racial and multicultural diversity are at the same time the glue that binds us together. For a moment, it doesn’t really matter where you come from—we are all the same.  Why is that we are so affected when we watch our athletes achieve unbelievable sporting heights?  We admire them because they too are fellow human beings who went beyond their so-called limitations and are able to realize their full potential as individuals.  If they can do that in sports, well then, we can do it in “real life.” 

 

Raise your standards.  Find your path, and do not live in mediocrity.  We are here on earth for a reason, and you may not be an Olympian athlete, but you definitely are built to be an Olympian in something else. 

 

P.S. Thank you to Ms. Gina Calaguas of the Philippine Olympic Committee, Mr.Chua Ah Tok, Mr. M.P. Harridas, Ms. Mae, Dr. Mean, Nick, Li Neo, Benny, Melissa, Chan, Sean, and all the other moderators and staff of the Olympic Academy of Malaysia.  All my love to Kiki, Quyen, Jamie, Nazroff, Katsuya, Petri, Udesh, Eddie, Elaine, Parissa, Jess, Jack, Kenny Roger, TEAMPLAY members, and all my wonderful batchmates in the 10th NOA Session. 

* From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1. Ice kacang or Ais kacang (Chinese: Hanyu Pinyin: hóngdòu bing; literally “red bean ice”), is a dessert served in Malaysia. It is also known as air batu campur (ABC) in Malay. It is sweet-tasting and is ice primarily served with sweet flavoured syrup and jelly. The word Kacang (note that kachang is an old spelling) is a Malay word for bean, and the word “ais” is a translation of the english term “ice”. Other Asian Variations Include: Bingsu: Korean, Bàobīng:Taiwanese, Halo halo:  Filipino, Kakigōri : Japanese.

2. Futsal is an indoor version of football (soccer). Its name is derived from the Portuguese futebol de salão and the Spanish fútbol sala/de salón, which can be translated as ‘indoor football’.

3. What do the Olympic rings signify?  According to most accounts, the rings were adopted by Baron Pierre de Coubertin (founder of the modern Olympic Movement) in 1913 after he saw a similar design on an artifact from ancient Greece.  The five rings represent the five major regions of the world: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Every national flag in the world includes at least one of the five colors, which are (from left to right) blue, yellow, black, green, and red.  It is important to emphasize that Pierre de Coubertin never said nor wrote that the colors of the rings were linked with the different continents.

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July 3, 2009 · 12:59 am

The Fun Club

The Fun Club Apr 26, ’07 3:01 AM
for everyone

The Fun Club

By Ani Karina S. de Leon

 

I have to be honest-I am as much a fan of sports as I am an athlete.  At the very basic level, I think this is a requirement if you want to succeed in what you are doing—you have to be in love with it first.  Truly, madly, deeply. 

 

This is also of course applicable too in the realm of sports.  You act like a crazed telenovela addict and schedule your life around the airtimes of the games that you want to catch on TV.  Your wardrobe is dictated upon by the colors of your favorite team.  Your walls or desktops are decorated with various pictures of your sports heroes and you talk about their stats and details of their love life as if they were a family member or a close friend of yours.  You surf the internet endlessly on any information you can gather about them and actually own an account complete with user name and password on their website.

 

I’ve had a couple of phases over the years wherein I would cry (and this is really painful for me to divulge) if my basketball team (Purefoods, just in case you were curious) would lose to the opposing side.  I kid you not.  I hated having to show up in school the next day just to see the gloating faces of my classmates who supported the other squad.  Ugh.  The agony I had to go through. 

 

I once worshipped Michael Schumacher and Lance Armstrong so much that I would buy all the magazines I could find that had them on the cover.  Of course this proved to be a very expensive pursuit for me so I had to give it up and just accept that it was taking up too much of my time worrying if I had checked every issue of F1, Bicycling, Procycling, VeloNews, and the occasional Sports Illustrated and Outdoor Magazine Covers. 

 

People close to me know of my tendency to fanaticism.  A cycling buddy of mine relocated to Guam a couple of years ago and as a result had to leave most of his stuff behind.  During that period I lived and breathed the very thought of Lance and he bequeathed me with a door-sized hard mounted poster of the 7-time Tour de France Champion as he was distributing his belongings to his friends.  I placed it immediately in front of my bike trainer and would actually talk to the picture every now and then.

 

Being a genuine supporter, though, is even a step further than being a mere admirer.  I am aware of this because throughout my involvement in sports I have seen race volunteers and personal crews of different athletes toil much harder and longer than the participants themselves.  They have to wake up as early, baby their charge, forgive them for their grouchiness about the pettiest of things, and look after them when they are finished because they are the stars of the day—hence the royal treatment. I have been both at the giving and receiving end of this so I know what I am talking about.  My dear, dear friends once surprised me with a banner which said “Ani’s Fun Club” (pun intended).  I was so touched—if only everyone could be so lucky.

 

We like to classify sports into individual and team categories.  I say there is only the latter kind, and every triumphant athlete recognizes this.  Even the lone marathoner has at least one or more of the following: a spouse or partner, a coach, a training companion, a masseuse, a therapist, an agent, a manager, a sponsor, a psychologist, etc.   

 

No man or woman is an island, and in what we do it is no different.  The more you acknowledge and thank your devotees, the happier they will be to take care of you in every way they can. And the sooner you realize this, the faster your performance will progress.

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July 3, 2009 · 12:55 am

This is My Reality

  This is my Reality Apr 26, ’07 3:01 AM
for everyone

This is My Reality

 

Pinoy Big Brother.  American Idol. Amazing Race.  The Apprentice.  Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere, chances are you have seen an episode or can even recite the names of the cast members of these shows.  No question about it, from the moment Mark Burnett gave us the first season of Survivor, reality TV has taken us by storm and our viewing perspective will never be the same again.

 

Just recently, I had my own brush with it as a “hair model” in David’s Salon’s upcoming show, The Final Cut.  Twelve aspiring hair specialists housed together with the winner receiving a huge cash incentive and a trip to one of the most prestigious hair shows in Europe.  Sort of like The Apprentice and PBB with a Queer Eye flavor rolled into one. 

 

As members of Team David’s All Women’s Multi Sport Team, I along with two other teammates were asked to volunteer as guests for one of the episodes.  David Charlton designed the obstacles himself, and being a multi sport athlete too, he thought it would be a good idea to get the stylists out of their physical and psychological comfort zones by making them join boot camps, row boats, zipline, climb, run, etc., aside from the presumed activities of cutting, coloring, and styling hair. 

 

One of the things that Louigie, the stylist assigned to me was instructed to do was cycle a pedicab with myself as passenger.  Judging from his physique, he was obviously not accustomed to working out (understatement), and pedaling uphill with the added weight of an extra person proved to be a difficult task (understatement # 2).  He couldn’t even handle his bike well enough to maneuver properly, and we literally crashed into the ditch four times.  I was scared as hell.  I had just recovered from an injury which took four long months to heal and I definitely didn’t want to get sidelined again—especially not this way!  It didn’t do my nerves any good that Louigie kept screaming throughout the ordeal, crying out things like, “But I’m not an athlete, I’m a beautician!!!” or “I’m not a man…I’m a gay (sic)!!!”  Oh dear Lord.

 

I assessed the situation and determined that it was time to for me to gain some control.  The very instant he exclaimed again, “Im not an athlete!!!”  I snapped back at him, “WELL YOU ARE TODAY, DA__IT!!!  I egged him on and things decidedly became more manageable afterwards and he calmed down a bit. Maybe the fact that I held a tight grip on the handle bars, went down the pedicab, and pushed helped too…hey, can’t help but still be competitive, my stylist has gotta win you know!

 

In the end, he was finally able to seize the bull by the horns (or in this case, comb and scissors) and rise to the challenge.  He overcame his fears—geez, at least one of us did—and was able to go very far into the game.  Of course I can’t tell you if he won, but I can tell you that he did very well and I am very proud of him.

 

Sometimes it takes moments like these for me to fully appreciate that what I do without much thought will appear awfully daunting to a lot of people.  But what is not plainly clear to most is that I do either swim, bike, or run training everyday only because I choose to.  And chances are, if they made their minds up to do the same thing, they will get better at it too. 

 

People like watching reality shows because they provide the illusion of ordinary people instantly transformed into something extraordinary.  And they secretly wish that they can be as lucky as the winner too.  People like Louigie aren’t “lucky.”  He is a very skilled and serious hair expert (otherwise my bob would’ve looked like a mop, but I like my cut, thank you very much).  He didn’t learn to become one overnight. 

 

All of us have our own special goals, ambitions, and seemingly impossible aspirations.  Are you going to sit down and wait for a genie to appear or will you take the crucial steps to achieve them?  Your show.

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July 3, 2009 · 12:50 am

Working Out: Do Not Disturb

Working Out: Do Not Disturb Apr 26, ’07 3:00 AM
for everyone

Working Out: Do Not Disturb

 

Felt cranky today.  Wasn’t able to carry out my run which I had so eagerly planned the night before.  I know I shouldn’t let it affect me so I could go on with my day like normal people do. 

 

But alas, it is not to be.  I get annoyed at the guard at the village gate for asking for my ID.  Poor guy was just doing his job.  I retaliate with full-on hostility at my friend when he tries to tease me with his usual “your thighs are humongous” brand of comments.  Sorry dude, I’m just not gonna have a high tolerance for crap at the moment.  I snap or glare at anyone in general who manages to get in my way.  And mind you, getting “the look” from me is not a good thing.

 

Truth is, I’m just mad at myself.  Mad because I allowed other people and other concerns take over my Me Time yet again.  Which reflected badly on my ability to put my foot down when necessary.  And goodness knows—I need that workout.

 

For years I have been training for all sorts of reasons and lofty aspirations.  But now I just want to keep it simple.  I just want to feel good.  And breaking a sweat does the trick for me almost instantly.

 

I struggle through the hodgepodge miscellany of my daily routine but at the back of my mind I am aware that I have to regroup at the end of it and at least try to finish it off in good spirits.

 

Why is it so important that I log in a solo workout regularly, you say?  Because if I don’t, I won’t be able to breathe.   You hear guys say it all the time—I need my space.  And training on my own gives me that, especially since I live in the city and am in constant contact with maddening noise and fumes of one of the most polluted cities in the world.  And I have to exhale it all out at some point.

 

Just like everyone else, I do a lot of my training with other people, and I love being with them too.  It’s a highly energetic group vibe that you feed off from and it’s extremely fun.  This also means, though, that you have to adjust to what the rest of them are doing, and you can’t expect your friends to follow your unique program requirements.

 

I can see why, amongst my different sets of friends, the athletes are the happiest of the bunch.  We hardly have any bottled up stresses and when we do, we can scream it all off in one frenzied physical activity. 

 

Finally, at around 7:30pm, I see an opening.  I run at a relaxed pace sans my watch for six laps around my mile route and suddenly I begin to make sense.  My head is cleared from all unwanted debris and I am whole again.  My surroundings seem more luminous and the stars in the night sky are prettier.  I am connected to the universe.  It’s so not just the endorphins for this girl.

 

Ah, bliss. Sometimes I wonder if the buzz that follows exercise is considered legal.  I could trip on it forever.

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July 3, 2009 · 12:48 am

Travel and take the road back with you

Travel and take the road back with you Apr 26, ’07 2:59 AM
for everyone

Travel and take the road back with you

 

 

My dear uncle, whom I have lengthy conversations with, once waved a question in front of me as we were driving along the highway.  He said, “Do you have a list of 100 things you want to do before you die?”  I was jolted out of my tranquil state of mind at his query and was forced to start up with one for the remainder of the trip.

 

My list isn’t finished yet because I keep editing it.  Scanning through it though, I’ve noticed that there is a trend so far—the items are all about doing different things unique to certain places.  For example, entry number 6: cycle up the Alpe D’ Huez in France, or number 39: ride the desert train which leads to the Taj Mahal in India.

 

My feet get very restless and I like that unexplainably gleeful sensation I get, seeing my passport filled up with all sorts of seals and stamps.  I like complaining about foreign weather and I like trying out dishes with names I cannot pronounce.  I like trying to analyze people from other cultures, acknowledging their diversity yet always arriving to the conclusion that we are all the same.  I like how my brain figures out a way of adjusting to each novel and puzzling situation it encounters (and knowing myself, there is always something that will come up wherever I am, whether I plan it or not). 

 

Most of all I like going back home and I like the way I look at old things from a new perspective.  Sometimes if you stare at a painting too closely and too long you only see the strokes and fail to see what they are trying to represent.  You have to take a few steps back and rest your eyes on something else before looking at the artwork again.  Only then can you appreciate the masterpiece standing right in front of you.

 

It is not uncommon for people who are fresh from deplaning to give a wince upon setting foot in NAIA.  Oh what a lousy airport, we shamefacedly think as we try to imagine what a disgusting impression we must be making on our visitors.  And then we extend this ranting to the ugly roads, the pollution, the hopeless traffic jams and anything and everything bad there is to notice.  We like to criticize and talk about the things that our country falls short of, and we like to compare it with other nations and all the great things that they have.  Of course there will always be disparities.  And then finally we agree that it is much too overwhelming and stressful to come up with a plan to solve it all.

 

I am not going to hide the fact that I get embarrassed too every time I land and have to be reminded of our shortcomings right away.  You know what though, cliché as it is, there really is no place like home, and no first-world convenience can supplant the affection the Philippines has in my heart.   

 

I know that not too long ago I had been feeling a creeping helplessness that in spite of my awareness of what else is out there, I was still not ready or equipped to make something good and progressive and mind-bogglingly brilliant to be of enough importance to my beloved motherland. I know now too, however, that the answer is not really complicated, as most good solutions are. 

 

In my list, I wrote down: entry number 1) Make yourself count to those who matter most to you, and entry number 2) Do what you can, and do it well. 

 

Oh, and I also put for entry number 3) Join the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii—but that’s another story.

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July 3, 2009 · 12:45 am

Racing Naked (and Other Strange Delusions)

1 (177)

Racing Naked (and Other Strange Delusions) Apr 26, ’07 2:58 AM
for everyone

Racing Naked (and Other Strange Delusions)

By Ani Karina S. de Leon

 

 

Its simply bizarre how many unbidden thoughts suddenly pop into your head while you are racing or training.  I have been competing for many years now and still I can’t quite put a handle on all the things that barge into my brain without warning while I am trying my best to carry out my job seriously.  You’d think that after a while these thought patterns would become more and more predictable, but they don’t. 

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My own unscientific and unfounded theory is that because of the intense pain (or boredom, whatever the case may be) we have to endure, we tend to lose focus on the task at hand and try to entertain ourselves with other ideas—though not necessarily less intense, as I pleasantly discovered with my primitive and random SMS-based research. 

 

From the replies that I have received thus yet, I feel just a wee bit saner than some of my more imaginative fellow athletes.  As these events really transpired, I give thanks to my unnamed subjects who gamely narrated them to me.  The list that follows is all proof that the grey matter we have up there is really much more colorful than that dull and boring shade. 

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And the winners are…

 

  1. WHY AM I DOING THIS???  (hands down favorite thought)
  2. Hey check out that monkey eating a Powerbar!  Sayang, I could really use that right now…
  3. Was that Senator Cayetano?  I think I prefer her hair that way.  Looks fuller.
  4. Damn I LOOK GOOD.
  5. Nice Ass.
  6. It’s f-in HOT!!! I wish I could run naked.
  7. KY jelly or petroleum jelly? I know KY is better for other stuff…
  8. I’m outrunning a Kenyan right now.  Not.
  9. Anytime now someone will spring out of the bushes with a nice massage bed and give me a rubdown and some Salon-pas.
  10. What’s the best way to draft off this person without catching all his sweat??? It’s all pouring into my mouth!!!  I better just keep it closed.
  11. This is me, this is the real me, and I am: The Flash!!!
  12. Aargh. My nipples are bleeding.  I should really stock up on Band-Aids.
  13. I could win this!!! (newbie triathlete doing an Ironman distance event)
  14. What does one have to do to get an ice cold beer in these useless aid stations?
  15. (singing the song for three hours) “Isang libo’t isang tuwa, buong bansa, Eat Bulaga!”
  16. Hmm, my legs feel really nice and smooth from that waxing job.  Sarap, parang baby.
  17. Uuunngghh.  Now I wish I didn’t have those oysters last night.
  18. Before crossing the finish line: Dear Lord, I promise to quit smoking, I will drink less alcohol, please just let me beat _____.   After crossing the finish line and kicking ass:  Only kidding Lord.  I’ll just go to church to thank You later.
  19. Goodness, is he wearing a g-string under those see-through bike shorts???!!!  What the heck!!??
  20. I’m not cramping up I’m not cramping up I’m not cramping up uh-oh I’m cramping up I’m Cramping Up I’M CRAMPING UP HELPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Darn it.  I’ll just walk.
  21. I should’ve trained for this. Stupid.

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July 3, 2009 · 12:43 am

Sitting Still for Dummies

Sitting Still For Dummies Apr 26, ’07 2:57 AM
for everyone

Sitting Still for Dummies

(Or how to cope with an annoying injury that’s driving you crazy)

Okay, somebody please help me out here.  I feel like I am once again forced to struggle with something new and foreign and nobody really left a set of instructions for me to follow.  I hate not knowing what to do.  But more than that, I HATE not being able to do anything.  Workout-wise, that is.

That’s right, I’m injured. My kneecap is not tracking properly and I can’t run, I can’t bike on my beloved hills, and I definitely can’t race.  Super bummer.  It doesn’t even matter anymore how I hurt my knee, (but just in case you do wanna know, it was from stupidity, not from overtraining…although that does count as a form of stupidity too) the point is, I can’t do what I love doing.  I told my best friend the other day that I felt like a kid who was prohibited to frolic around with the other kids in the playground.

Well here I am, cut off from my daily endorphin indulgences and sadly unequipped to remain stationary but forced to be so.  The thing is, you can’t stay mad at your situation forever (it gets boring too- for you and for other people) and I figured I probably won’t be the only one who will encounter this predicament so I have decided to be useful and share some of the little nuggets of wisdom I have come across in the past two months.  There is a book called “The Art of Doing Nothing” by Veronique Vienne and Erica Lennard and I must say it makes perfect sense to me right now.  I stole some of my favorite “art forms” from the book, mixed it up with my own findings, and tried to make it as dummy-friendly as possible for the rest-challenged personality.

“Being” is more compelling than “Doing.”  I grew up in a household wherein everyone was always preoccupied with either work, hobbies, or planning other diversions for work and hobbies.  It seemed like no one ever spent their waking hours wasting precious minutes on “trivial stuff.”  I thought this was how I should measure myself as a person, but I know now that I had it wrong.  My worth will not be lessened if I do more or less.  Personally I think this is where a lot of addictions stem from, because we feel like we shouldn’t be idle and if we are watching tv, or chatting online, drinking, smoking, etc. we feel like we are doing something, but we really aren’t.  We should learn to appreciate ourselves a little bit more, just as we are.

Adopting The “How Do You Know It’s a Bad Thing?” Frame Of Mind.  Can we really say with certainty that every single thing that happens to us is either good or bad?  Yes, I do feel left out when I can’t train, and it’s very easy to let negative thoughts pollute my psyche, but going with the flow of things is a much better alternative…further down the road know I will find out why this is happening right now, and it might even be good for me.

Sleeping and Napping.  I definitely have more capacity to produce quality work when I am rested and refreshed.  A clearer mind and a well-recovered body can do wonders.  I can’t emphasize this enough.

Unclutter.  A clean environment and a worry-free mind affects every single aspect of your life.  Meditate and hold a vision of your ideal self without all the inconsequential baggage that your harried lifestyle usually carries.

Learning Not to Feel Guilty.  Most serious athletes or people who work out regularly feel bad when they don’t get to work out.  But just remember that this is only a temporary and necessary thing.  Not resting will make your injury last longer, and that is bound to make you feel even worse.

Making The Most Out Of The Cards You are Dealt With.  Explore your options at this time.  What is it that you can work on while you are out of commission?  Maybe now is the best time to work on your strength and flexibility, areas that aren’t usually given enough attention when you are busy doing all of your other workouts.

Actually Having Fun.  Just enjoy this moment and spend it doing things you’ve always wanted to do on your own, with family, or with friends.  Yes, there is another world out there, offering so much potential for growth and happiness.  Borrowing the title of a great film, Life Is Beautiful…and it would be foolish to get stuck in a quagmire just because you fell into one for an insignificant second.

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