Adidas' Loser

CORE-RELATE!

Cliche, cliche... "you win some; you lose some."

Just when you thought you've made a killing out of your registration fee for the Adidas 10K 'King of the Road Marathon' and got wonderful freebies, you find out you've been robbed of your (branded) bag which has your 40,000-peso mobile gadget, some (branded) clothes, your wallet (with your day's worth of work), your IDs, ATM cards and house keys, plus your friend's not-so-new N6020.

Good thing the "you" wasn't me, but my friend Roxanne. However, I was the "your friend," in the last part and that took the 'good' out of the 'good thing.' Well, almost. Roxanne and I both failed to read our instincts correctly and we ended up as 'losers.' She thought her bag was safer at the car's backseat than in the compartment. I thought I'd do better to just rely on the official timer instead of my phone's stopwatch so instead of running with it in my belt bag, I just slipped it in Roxanne's bag. And oh, our 'driver,' my Enduro teammate Ray, for some unknown reason, failed to follow his routine of hiding his mobile phone in a place safer than on the top of his box-type Lancer's dashboard. So there. Three losers in one day. And if you count having your car's windows snap out 'for some unknown reason,' then we're counting four losers, the fourth one being Chief, whose GSR's power windows caved in while we were pondering our sorry fates in the IMAX Parking Lot of the SM Mall of Asia.

Prior to finding out about those pieces of dreadful truth, my workmates and I celebrated our conquest of a hard-day's run after a hard-night's work. I, for one, was ecstatic about breaking my 10K "record" of 1:13:58 (at the Milo 10K last July) with a 1:12:36 finish. I was thrilled when shots of Milan were taken at the finish line, with actresses Donita Rose and G Toengi who ran side-by-side all throughout the race and were magnanimous enough to have their picture taken with the one who preceded them: Milan and no other. I delightfully nibbled my snickers while ogling the cover of Men's Health Mag in my Adidas 'Nothing is Impossible' stash and while the emcee congratulated the hardcore runners Buenavista and Manipol who timed around 31mins and 45mins, respectively. "Hardcore" indeed, adjective befitting also of the finishers from the Philippine National Police Academy.

I also saw AMCI peeps Ms. Angie, Sir James, Sir TB, my batchmates Mike, Kuya Brodi, TJ, Maui, Cecil, who's fondly called Pops, as TJ reminded me - I thought he was 'Tatang.' Then there's Zaza, Jeng, Marc, Dexter, Aries, Paulo, Ai and Kim...I haven't seen Pie, Sheena and Michelle. I'm not so sure if I saw Jomen, my groupmate on BMC Day1...I kinda miss being with them, 'enduring' (and enjoying) the science of mountaineering training. I wonder, will I ever get to sign up again for BMC next year or some time in the future? Only God knows.

Anyway, back to the losers' story. I lost a phone while my friend lost around 50,000 pesos worth of stuff. Hmm. I'm not so much of a sorry loser, really, because I don't have much of a competitive spirit. After having been through a lot of 'losing moments' in my life but not quitting right away, I've realized that what actually gives me joy is being in the game. Prior to such realization, I've had the pleasure of writing my own quote last March: "I play the game of life to win. And life has taught me that there is victory, even in defeat. So todate, I'm still on a winning streak." Just a few weeks ago though, after quitting AMCI, I've revised the first line to: "I play the game of life to have fun..." So much for self-discovery, eh? Well, that's just exactly the way I see it.

Life, after all, is a matter of perspective. We dwell not on what we don't have but on what is already in place. We seek contentment not with what has passed but with what is staring us straight in the face. We savor what we sip, not what we've spurted out. With these in mind, I focus instead on the irreplaceable highlights of that fateful day: Chief's celebrity finish (and photo-opt!), running "with" Sen. Pia Cayetano, my new "record," the KFC treat from Mommy Malen and Dada Joey, and the reinforcement of a lesson I've been taught for countless times before: trust your instincts.

So... Looking for Loser? She ain't here.


"For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory." Deuteronomy 20:4