YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS

is a song i used to listen all the time in my final year at georgetown when i went running along the potomac river.

these were taken in brooklyn gardens during the cherry blossom festival.

a group of us had been running earlier and paulina and i were so amused with the number of americans doing taichi on the grass. and after sometime of squinting at them in silence, we felt compelled to "represent" and lead the masses with our version 4.0 of crouching tiger hidden dragon.

i miss the sun. i like spring - running or biking as the days stretch out longer and longer. so much potential. the energy humming in the air, an undercurrent mmmmmmmm. molecules reverberating. everything calls, come play.

fall makes me sad. 7 years and im still not used to days getting shorter, to wool and big buttons and mitten gloves. people confront the cold with, "ah refreshing!" and to me its more like, "ah depressing." where goes the sun?

the challenge im setting myself this year is that im not going to let the cold stop me from running. come hell, fire or ice water i am going to run outside. even if this means i OD on layering and end up resembling one maniacal human marshmallow sprinting down soho, yes that's right, catch me if u can.

ok we'll see.

THE UPCOMING WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE CHALLENGE, PENGUINS AND OTHER THINGS

i felt better and ran wed, thurs, fri morning.

on friday i tried running withough my ipod because i left my nano at the office.
i thought i would give up sooner, having no pain distraction, but i surprisingly ran even longer as i was unaware of time passing.

i ran towards wall street, weaving in and out of the oncoming traffic of corporate penguins pottering towards work.

i am amused.

i wonder what each of them are thinking.
i wonder if they have stories like mine, loves like mine, places they left behind to be here - but all different ofcourse, because these things are theirs not mine.

i think about how in the next half an hour, i will hop into the shower, and put on my own penguin suit - though because i work in advertising i am given the perogative to dress up like a dolphin or seahorse if i so desire.

but we all do pretty much the same thing.

not running today because rob has decided to do what he calls the "williamsburg challenge" tomorrow sunday and i decided to join him. what both us amateur runners will be challenging each other is to run across the williamsburg bridge and back.

small feat to most but i think it will be quite challenging for us, ok me.

will report back.

SHARK!

when i was about 5 or 6 my parents enrolled me into swimming class at the country club.
each lesson was a 2 hour affair which took place twice a week.

they were led by a dark leathery man in a wetsuit called vincent, whose patience and life-saving skills, a gaggle of splashing 6 to 8 year olds felt unremmitingly compelled to test.

towards the end of every lesson uncle vincent made us work on building our stamina by making us do laps to and fro the length of the olympic pool. They started with 10, and then 20. By the time I was 8, I was doing 30-40 frogger style pulls across the perfectly rectangular pond at the end of every class.

the problem with laps is that repetition makes them boring. so over time i developed tactics that made the experience of doing something so goddamn monotonous more fun and interesting.

i began swimming with my eyes shut. and in the darkness of my sealed lids, id imagine myself being chased by a great white. the thought was deliciously thrilling. as simultaneous shoots of panic and lactic acid made me clock my laps in less time. arms legs thrashing in desperate attempt to flee an invisible phantom.

the great white chased me for another 2 more years and then i quit swimming lessons with uncle vincent altogether.

swimming repetitive laps and running isnt that different. u are essentially doing the same thing. keeping your limbs moving in a uniform sequence.

alot of people complain running is boring. as is swimming.

unlike other sports these activities do not entail your mind and body to constantly react to, defend or attack external agents. its persistently monotonous and maybe because of that, it allows those who do it to be more introspective or in my case of my 8 year old self, more creative and imaginative.

BICYCLE MUSINGS

fall has finally seeped in and my body rejects the change.
not thrilled.
throat hurts.
been popping tylenols like tic tacs.
my head feels heavy and warm
but im freezing and my fingertips are like icicles ticking away on these alphabet tiles.
i ran before work last friday.
hibernated on saturday until late afternoon.
spent the rest of sunday cycling around williamsburg art galleries with 2 other friends.
the_ex and rob.
i now realize how comfortable i have gotten with running and biking with rob.
only when a 3rd person enters our tandem, do i realize that there was a nice little equilibrium to start with which has now been wobbled.
i like that there is no social-babysitting between rob and i
that i dont feel like i have to make conversation with him.
that we can go for long periods of time without talking to each other.
each plugged into our own ipods at times -
but we are still beside each other doing the same thing.

HELLO HAMSTER

i quit my gym membership 4 months ago.

it finally occured to me that i do enough hamster wheeling at work to jump on an elliptical or running machine after 8 to physically replicate the same action.

it was the start of summer when i threw in the nubbly gym towel. but now that fall is here and the thought of running in the nipping cold seems less and less appealing, i may need to reconsider this hamster thing. fuck.

AN INTRODUCTION: THE BITCH CAN RUN

i have lived in new york for over 2 years now.

my main mode of transport in this city is my considerably long legs
and a 1965 red schwinn called sophie.
i walk and bike to work everyday.
but 2-3 times a week i run.
really run.

i dont consider myself an athlete, the word makes me think of someone gladiatorish in strength or construct.
i am neither of those 2 things.
i may be 5'7 but my frame is lithe and narrow, so i look more edie sedgwick than marion jones.
but more tellingly, i've never had one of those glorious athletic pinings to break a time record nor found the notion of testing my physical limits particularly enticing.

when i was growing up in singapore, i windsurfed competitively, danced, played tennis and swam. i did these activities because they were part of the school curriculum. they were okay. i did not hate them. i did not love them either. they were mildly interesting and occasionally self-congratulatory.

i can't remember why i started running. but i know it happened sometime after highschool before i moved to boston for college. i have a habit of staying up late at night, or more accurately, a perennial problem with sleeping. so maybe it all began with having nothing better to do.

oftentimes, at 3-4AM, i'd put on my sneakers, jump over the front gate of my house and run.

the first time i did it was a little scary but exciting. i still remember the color of my neighborhood in the dark - a deep magenta black; the warm wet smell of dense tropical trees like sweet rot; the bubbling crackle of my rubber soles smearing against the tar; the build-up of heat, ache and sweat.

i didnt know where i was going then. i dont think it matters when i run, even now. i enjoy making up routes along the way, taking unexpected turns and bends. i avoid taking the same road i had taken to get where i am. i always find a new one.

when i run, i run away from the sedentary, the way things "have been" or "should be." i run because i can. i run because it makes me feel strong, defiant and free. i am not surprised if my love for running is a metaphorical GPS pointing at my relentless desire for movement, change and discovery.

today, i out-run most of my athlete friends and definitely all my boyfriends. this part is still self-congratulatory but i am no pro-runner. most of the time i enjoy running solo, when everyone is sleeping or before they awake, just me and the dark, with everything else behind and everything else ahead.