Sunset in Paradise

CHAPTER 12 (LDR)

*Reina*

My days were dragging.

Every minute and hour passing was heavy and utterly excruciating. I missed Miles so badly. It comes to the fact that it didn't skip a day that I would cry and often tried to call him even in the middle of the night. The first week was also very hard for me.

The thought that we were in a foreign country, miles and miles apart from each other but also the truth that I couldn't hide, he really is my weakness.

For three weeks, I spent my days doing heavy training in the hopes of getting over my homesickness, but as weeks became months, my anxiety doubled, after winning our first leg and finishing our indoor and outdoor events, we advanced for the semis the next meet that we will need to compete according to the world athletic ranking to qualify for the next event was cancelled due to covid surge in Singapore, closing their door to any foreign country to flatten the curve.

So we decided to stay in Indonesia for a week before we were granted clearance to travel to our next destination.

We already stepped up our game plan and continued to undergo training, because the COVID cases in other countries were low, we chose to do our training in a country that has minimal travel restrictions.

We landed in St Moritz, Switzerland in the middle of May and stayed there for two weeks then we travelled again to Auckland, New Zealand for another two weeks of altitude training and rigorous workout in preparation for our next big event.

But as time went by, my mental health worsened.

Our training doctor suggested contacting my shrink back in the Philippines or just trying to open up to my teammates and coaches for them to understand me and also to cope with this separation anxiety.

Archie and Benny were really helpful knowing I had this situation before and seeing me so stressed, gave them a reason to worry too.

There were times that I would go to their room and spend time talking to them mindlessly, they kept me company for a while but then I realized, I was just burdening them with something I should fix for myself.

So I decided to do a solo mountain/trail running without their knowledge. I spent almost 2 and half weeks, exploring the mountains Earnslaw Burn of Mt Aspiring and Mt Cook, both National Parks and followed the trail in Routeburn track in Mt Aspiring, also admired Tasman Lake, Sealy Tarn and Hooker Lake, still portions of Mt Cook, Then I decided to go back to our campsite in Queenstown.

It was a three-hour ride back to our lodge surrounded by different types of recreational activities and resorts, perfect for our outdoor training.

When I came back, everyone was frantic and in bedlam, I thought someone just had a serious problem or something wrong happened when I was away, it turned out that they were all panicking because I disappeared for two good weeks and three days without a trace.

They even called the local NZ police and reported me as a missing person. They even alerted the Philippine embassy. Of course, I ran my mouth for explanation and in my defense, they were all worried sick that they skipped their training program just to find me.

To my biggest disappointment, they even called Tita Theresa and Miles and told them I was missing.

“Di mo ba alam ang ginawa namin para lang mahanap ka? Ni hindi nga namin alam kung saan kami maghahanap, bakit ba naman kasi di ka man lang nagsabi o kaya tumawag?

Mahirap bang gawin yun, na sana nag-iwan ka ng mensahe o kaya nagpaalam ka sa isa sa amin, alam mo bang ang laking abala ang kinalabasan ng pinaggagagawa mo?!”