I did a Forest Gump. Stuck indoors for four days because of a nagging cold, I needed to get out and move. I thought I’d do a short 10 minute walk to Avenue K, U-turn and head back home.  My feet had other ideas. They walked to KLCC and then to the park. One time around the park. And another, and before long I had done three rounds. It felt wonderful.

One of my all time feel-good movies is Forrest Gump.  In the movie, Forest went on a run one day, and kept on running. He gathered an entourage of runners who followed him as he traversed the Unites States.  Forrest ran for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days, and 16 hours. He covered an estimated 19,024 miles [1].

I likened my actions to Forrest Gump only because I did a similar thing in Fraser’s Hill. Not in scale but in concept. My husband and I were at the hill resort for the weekend. As luck would have it, he had to respond to a work-related email on a Sunday. Yes, we should have a clear break from work at least one day in a week and all that… Anyway, instead of waiting for him to finish his email response, and getting impatient in the process, I went for a walk. It was meant to be a short trek from the Ye’ Olde Smokehouse to Allan’s Water and back. The plan was for my husband to join me as soon as he was done. It was an ideal morning for a walk – misty, cool and the sounds of chirping birds.  As there was still no text in sight, I decided I’d walk some more. I headed into town, walked past the golf course and the Paddock. Still no text. I continued past Bishop’s Trail, the Silver Park Apartments, the children’s playground, and before long I was back at the hotel in time for breakfast.

I enjoy walking with my husband. We chat and we point out different things and interesting animals on our path. Birds (when we manage to spot them; we are generally quite useless at noticing anything), monkeys (we saw gibbons during our last visit only because of the very loud and distinctive hooting noises and wild movements right at the top of the trees where they happened to be) and multi-coloured creepy crawlies. Our walks together never seem too long or too tiring. While it’s nice to have company I also like my own company. Solo walks are good to clear mental cobwebs, and structure thoughts and ideas in my head.

I also tend to do a Forest Gump with my morning exercises. I start off with a set time to complete my routine. But once my motors get revved up I want to go on and on like Forrest Gump or the Energizer bunny. Maybe this is how marathon runners (I am not one) start out. They do a Forrest Gump; starting at 5K, then running some more to 10K, then a little longer to 21.1K and then reaching 42.2K. The build-up sounds good to me as it incentivises people to want to push a little harder and a little farther at each milestone to reach the ultimate full marathon. And, there are ultramarathons, for those who want to run, run and run some more. Held on trails, the most common ultramarathon distances are the intimidatingly long 50K, 80.46K, 100K and 161K[2].

I also Forrest Gump it when I read unputdownable novels by my favourite novelists.  I find excuses, no, reasons, to read another page, another chapter, a few more chapters… It’s disruptive but immensely pleasurable as my mind is my cinema and I get to choose how my characters look and behave and how I want the scenes to play out. For me, a book made into a movie never quite lives up to my too high expectations.

There is a not-so-good aspect of Forrest Gump-ing that I am not particularly proud of.  As a self-confessed chocoholic, I don’t have a sweet tooth but sweet teeth.   When I start on a chocolate bar (yes, bar, not a piece or a few squares of a bar of chocolate), my mind Forrest Gumps to other chocolates, cakes, biscuits or ice-cream that I have in the fridge or kitchen. I don’t stop until I have vacuumed all the sweet things into my mouth. Sigh. There’s another more accurate term for this sort of behaviour – bingeing. I am guilty and I know it.

I could probably Forrest Gump the Forrest Gump movie as well. I have watched it, wholly and in parts, whenever it has been aired. The characters are likeable and the story is so heart-warming. And, of all the many nuggets of genius proffered in the movie, my favourite remains, ‘Life is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you’re gonna get.’ I, on the other hand, prefer to check the names and description of the chocolates on the underside of the box, lifting it up above my head, ala-meringue style, so that I know what I’m gonna get. Typical me.