A 5k in 21 minutes

It has been a long time, perhaps even half a decade, since I was running 5ks with ease.

Today, about an hour ago, I ran a 5k in 21 minutes with ease.

I have reverted to heel striking. It is my natural way of running, and I have removed the insoles so painfully made for me six years ago.

I run almost every single day. The times of sitting on my backside for my hobbies and habits are harder to spot, and gratefully so. With a gym now 30 seconds from my front door (I live in an apartment block in Dubai), I have no excuse. For that I am grateful.

Absorbing damage is running. I feel the ache of my muscles, and the burn of my lungs. The strain of my calves and the pull of my hamstrings chatters my mind. But I do not give up. I keep on going.

Each time I train, each time I run, I come to a point where I want to give up. And now, at the age of 34, a man of the world, I laugh in the face of such thoughts: the run is easy; its completion inevitable. That isn't to say that forget to immediacy of such desires, but rather that such desires do not come to define my run. I just get to the end, with some left to spare.

Of course, as with all these things, I have been running like this for about three months now. To have such a record is something that I have neglected for too long. But, with regularity, and with recognition of such need for slowness, and with such mindfulness, I feel I could become stronger.

The familiar ache still calls in my right knee. I know it demands that I stop. Instead, I build the muscle voice of my thighs and calves, carrying its weakness, fortifying it against such detriment. Of course, this might all fall apart - a knee is a knee, weak and unstable in itself. But with the power of a body built over a time, I might be able to build strength.

I have written much like this over the past six years or so. Whether this is the time where I will finally find real strength, we will see. But I feel judiciously confident.