Are you even in the race?

Yesterday, I went for a midnight run. It was the first after a long hiatus and forcing myself to go for it took more than a little determination. But I succeeded. Despite being cut short by an unexpected downpour, the run was satisfying. The feeling came not because of the distance covered but of the fact that I did run. Most of you would have exercised at one point or another in your lives. Just look at the mirror and it would be obvious whether you enjoyed it or not - and enjoyed it enough to make it a habit. I once exercised regularly when I served in the army. After all, it was not as if the choice was really there. :P After I was liberated, I did try to sustain exercising as a routine in my life. But you know Murphy's Law - things simply happened and the habit of exercising was broken. I did go through a cycle of (1) Routine broken (2) Re-establish routine blah-blah but it is somewhat like an infinite loop. So yesterday was part 2 all over again. As I bounced off in my jogging shoes, I psyched myself that running was fun and keeping fit was great. It worked well enough (partly because the run was cut short by the rain lol). As I was running, it occurred to me that at least I was running. It did not matter how far or fast I went but that I was running. Every little bit counts and who knows - my run last night might just had made my heart that weeny bit stronger and given me an extra minute of lifespan. Not all that bad right? So if we look at life and its challenges from the perspective of running, are you even in the race? We may lament, we may gripe, we may whine about endless things. But are we truly even in the race sometimes? Many situations in life resemble that of a black box. If you are not even truly inside, how can you change anything? I know it is so very easy to simply *observe* from the outside. But when you are just outside and staring at a black box, it's hard (not impossible but hard) to change anything inside. So, are you even in the race to begin with?