The perfect running program

When i said program, that's exactly what I meant. Here goes:

do{
- run at own pace
}
until (you don't want to run anymore)

Yup. It's as simple as that. This time, I didn't impose any time or distance constraints, e.g. run for at least an hour or at least 20 km. I didn't set out to push myself or to ignore any possible pain. I did not grind my teeth or clench my fist when it got hard, and I did not push myself when I lingered. I did not defer stopping. And most importantly, I answered all quitting thoughts with "you'll know when you'll want to stop".

When I did stop (other than the omnipresent traffic lights), it was because I had put my ankle guard on bare skin (instead of on top of a sock) and I had adjusted it too tight and it was giving me trouble. Instead of bearing the pain (an oh too normal behavior and which got me into having to wear an ankle guard in the first place), I just stopped to adjust it. It didn't do much good because I think I should have just put it on top of the sock. Imagine that, I had a guilt-free stop.

I knew after the first 10 minutes that I will have to take a bus home so I had to take off my shirt and I ran only in my sports bra. I did this because I wanted to make sure that I had a dry shirt when I boarded the very cold air con bus, whichever it might be. I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to everybody that was insulted by my appearance, but frankly, I care more about my guaranteed pneumonia than I care about your retinas.

My initial planned route was taking me somewhere on Farrer Road, but I remembered that last time I ran towards Farrer Road I had to cross a highway, which is an experience I do not want to repeat ever again. I felt like a rabbit (albeit a fat and slow one) dashing across very dangerous fields. I don't know back then who was more scared: me, quickly running across some highway entrance and then jumping the protective fence inside some bushes, or the poor drivers that witnessed me popping out from the bushes at various points (it was also night-time!) So instead, I ran on Orchard Boulevard and towards the Business District.

I stopped when I had done 14.2 km, 1hr:19 min. My ankle guard was painful already so I did not push it. The thing is, I was feeling so good and so relaxed that I know I could have run at least until 21 km (of course this does not mean anything, as when running, I can feel great one second and then die the next). So I stopped at a bus stop and stretched and felt super good.

As predicted, the bus was super cold and by the time I got home I was one shivering rabbit, having spent all the endorphins I so painfully acquired trying to ignore the c-c-cold.