Running at Sunrise

After 3 weeks of staying indoors most of the time to avoid the rains that have been inundating the city, my body clearly had a paucity of exercise. I started going to yoga class twice a week but something was still missing in my life. 

Ah, running

Even since I ended my career as a high school varsity track & field and cross country runner, I have repeatedly told myself I was done away with running. But as all you runners know, it's kind of a bug that sticks around for you for the rest of your life. Whenever I don't run for a few weeks my body starts to yearn for it. 

But I have been a bit ambivalent running in Siem Reap. I always get a bit squirmish running on roads I'm not very familiar with. Plus I was unsure whether or not the environment here would be runner friendly. But recently my scintillating coworker, who just started training for the Angkor Wat half marathon in December, has been saying that the roads were totally innocuous and she was really enjoying her runs.  So after getting proselytized for a few days, I was finally galvanized enough this morning to jump out my bed before sunrise and go on a quick run. 

And now I'm in love with it. 

I don't know why I was fretting so much before. Nothing can be so soothing and beautiful than running along the riverside while watching the sun slowly rise (especially since I avoided rush hour raft of motorcycles swarming around everywhere).  

I suppose Asian women runners are a bit of a novelty out here so most of the people I pass on the streets have either looked at me in aghast or smiled at me. It's quite entertaining. Well, soon it will no longer be a novelty because you are going to see me quite often from now on! 

My body feels a bit enervated since my body has not yet acclimatized to running in this heat but otherwise I feel fantastic.

I suppose signing up and training for that half marathon myself isn't such a bad idea after all?