First Day 2008: Jogging in the Rain (I’m 40, Single and Living in Jakarta (part 4))

Happy New Year!  This is one of the reason why I don’t have a new year resolution:  I sometimes just do it.

I woke up and it was raining.  Light rain.  I don’t like gloomy weather.  I am so addicted to the sun.  I think that I have some chemical imbalance in myself that I am prone to get depressed, but when the sun is out, I feel much, much better.

I was checking my mail and Facebook, looking outside the window.  Rain.  How I wish that I could jog.  Hey, it’s drizzling now.  Type, type.  Hey, a bit of sunshine!  What a waste if I don’t use it.

I’ve always wondered whether I could jog to my sister’s place at Triloka, Pancoran, which is probably around 10K from where I live at Antasari area.  It is like trying to see if my body can still do it or not.  But even during the weekends the pollution is bad (blame the metro minis and kopajas!).  Today, I will just run.  To where, I don’t know.  Just the Kemang area for a start.  Checked the time, little bit less than 9:30 am.

Drizzle, drizzle, splash, splash and I kept stepping on water and it felt great on my feet.  Then the rain started pouring for a while.  I kept running.  The music from my iPOD was also uplifting.  I just ran along Kemang Raya and smiled to people who looked at me with wierd looks (mostly men).  Then I reached the McDonald junction and turned left.  I just ran and ran.  The street was really empty and pleasant.  I turned right on Prapanca Raya instead of left to go back home.  I just felt energized and wanted to continue running.  Rain, light rain.  Stepped on puddles.  All wet from rain and sweat but I felt really good.  This is the first time I jogged in the rain and I didn’t know that it felt this good, orgasmicly great!  I did not even know where I wanted to go, Blok M? Senayan? Where?  All in my mind was just run…run…run, just enjoy the feeling, splash, splash, just like a little kid.

Reached the Prapanca-Wijaya junction and decided to turn right.  The street was still quiet.  Then I made a decision.  Kerm’s house. I continued running along Wijaya and took the left at the fork and continued entering Tirtayasa area.   As many times I picked Kerm up to go to the gym together, I still cannot get to his place without asking direction (stupid me).  There were people sitting at the warung so I asked the name of the street and they answered cheerfully (maybe wondered what this ‘tante-tante’ is running in the middle of this sort of weather!).

Reached Kerm’s house at 10:05 am.  So I ran around 35-40 minutes.  The guard said he was still asleep but because I was all wet he went in anyways to call someone from the house.  I stretched my muscles, looked at the grey sky with splotches of blue and smiled.  Blue!  The iPOD is playing U2’s “Beautiful Day”.  Then Kerm’s (cute) older brother, Anto, came out.  “Hi,” he looked around, “Where is your car?”

“I jogged”

“From your place at Antasari?”

I nodded.  “What?”  He smiled with a big surprise on his face.  I bet he was thinking what wierd friends Kerm has on his list. 

He invited me in, I got myself water.  Anto lend me a T-Shirt.  Then we chatted and I told him how it felt great running under the rain.  I think all those endorphine was out.  Then Kerm came in after about 45 minutes or so. ”She ran”.  Kerm looked at me.  “Are you nuts?”

All three of us injured our knees at one point in our lives.  Anto playing tennis, Kerm overtrained in the gym, me snapped my cruciate ligament in 1993 playing basketball.  All of us in our 40s now.  I think I’m the careless (or craziest) one from all of them.  Kerm drove me back home.  I called my maid on the way and she was worried sick she searched me around the complex!

I can’t explain the feeling.  I know the distance is not that far (maybe around 8K, I have to check).  This is the first day of 2008: ran around 40 minutes in the rain.  Something that I have never done before.  It felt good being able to just do what I wanted to do, spontaneously.  I feel great because I still can run that far and still keep myself in one piece.  Not that I strongly wanted to prove something, but now I know that I can do it.  I felt like a Nike ad model with “Just Do It” shirt on.  And I discovered that running in the rain is fun!  What a great way to start a new year!

I might have to improve the time though.  I have to buy that thing that can calculate how far I’ve run, my heart rate and the time.  Maybe next time 10K.

Hey, being 40 and single is so much fun!