Steering your mind.
Steering buses. Beyond zero Pacers. Steering our minds.
Am at the 9km mark along the “Beyond zero marathon course” this morning, just after the railway station along Haile Sellaisse Avenue onward bound to uhuru highway. Am on course at an average of 5.11, tongue out, heart pounding I can feel my ventricles dilate. Besides me is Korir, my pacer for today who looks like he is strolling in deep thought about his 2 acre tea plantation in Kericho. He had mentioned that the tea farm was taking a beating due to the low payout rates. This man runs and has got his glass always full and refilling mine while at it. He thinks I can outrun my mind. Earlier on he had thought I was abit pensive, maybe moody but really a mix of all the emotions ahead of a race. I look up the bridge ahead and the telkom advert on call charges comes into my full view…LOOOOOOOOOONG I count the number of zeros…no O’s just to make my next few metres bearable. Am struggling, the word is draining…for a runner…for me….Looooong way to go….looooong road ahead….there are days I love Looooong things…often actually like a Long run…they’re special. They ignite you for a race. You know you can get to the finish line when you do a long run. But this Telkom ad. something about my mind that doesnt energize…well at that moment I realise my mind is making a choice of what to draw from the ad. An ardent caller would have been smiling with pride on the @Shs.1.50 to all networks. Quickly I steer my mind to what is going to get me ahead…and right there i decide am counting the number of O’s in that word. My sight is blurry but I count to 10 blurry O’s. Yes am 10km down and I can do this…11km to go…and yes I can actually call for loooooooooong hours…
Soon after I hear the sound of tambourines, geeez cant be dead, that pace wasnt that fast I mean…the word says heavenly music is sweet filled with tambourine sounds….and this man Korir has the habit of telling me to go out till my lungs empty…the 2.00hr beyond zero race bus is here. Oh no. I race faster, the cheers from the 2.00hr bus keep me going. The air is blowing cool and would be great If the rays could hide for a while till we finish. This doesnt feel like the flat course my team mates promised. The subtle climbs feel like an annoying itch that must pass away quickly. On we move and I can feel it in my quads, my glutes, my heels its burning am loosing speed but it’s alright keeping my head up. So long as am not picked up by the wrong bus. I sight a black bill board on mombasa road NCBA: ONE DAY OR DAY ONE IT’S YOUR DECISION. I leap in joy, revived, recharged. Wooow the words a great delicacy to the the brain. I feel like I have just grown wings ..yeees reminds me of the feeling I get when I go to the galaxy…well fantasies… I know I got to pick up my pace and with a laser focus to the finish line because it’s day one of my new pace! Not one day.
We steer our minds to the destination. The finish line. We make a choice on what to see and how we see it. Clear the blurry, it’s today not tommorrow, not one day. Today. The magic moment of choice. Now.
Here is to all the run fit pacers who got the beyond zero “buses” to the finish line on time and in one piece. You all did a humbling job to deliver dreams to my fellow runners. We choose the “pace”, we choose when to get to the finish line and how we get there. When we have the opportunity let’s do it.
