For subscribers
When there’s little time left to rally
Playing a sport for 50 years is fulfilling. Giving it up can be heartbreaking.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
If you’re lucky, a sport follows you through your life, says the writer.
ST ILLUSTRATION: CEL GULAPA
Follow topic:
The open road always beckoned my friend. Not just the challenge but the small pleasures. The knotting of laces, the hamstring stretched, the first steps of a run. The body warms, a rhythm settles, a sheen of sweat rises. He’s running, he feels, into the arms of freedom.
He’s old school, my pal. No sunglasses, headphones, app-loaded watch. Just him and splat of sneaker on tarmac. Then the lungs start to labour and the shirt turns sticky but his mind is long practised at pushing past curtains of pain. Satisfaction is a profound feeling.
