“Life... it’s funny how you think of life, your life and how and why you ended up what and who you are today, sometimes some happenings are even too good to be true that when you thought about it, it just seems to be a like dream you had the other night.” These are the things that came through my mind before I started to write this blog while sitting in my room looking out the window thinking of something to write just to let the time pass by. Then right there and then I remembered the long gone part of me... right there and then I remembered Iceman...
I grew up in a world surrounded by cars, as a child everything I have from bed, clock, phone, bedroom displays to toys are all cars, I even have a Porsche body soap (it was a limited edition soap by Marks and Spencer on the 80’s), imagine that. I love looking at them especially sports cars; I love memorizing their brand and model and sometimes even their specifications and hell I’m fond of taking pictures ‘on’ them (I have quite a collection of pictures to be honest), I’m a real car addict for short. When I was growing up, I have always believed that cars were made for show-off, customizing them for displays and show it to people and happily watch them envy you. But when I started driving at the age of sixteen (16) my perception about cars changed, especially when I started racing at about 18 years old or so, I slowly realized that cars weren’t just made for show-off, they were actually produced to perform, to run as fast as they can, that’s why sports cars such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche and my all time favorite the Ford Mustang Shelby were made with a V8 or V12 engine making an output of 500 to 800 horsepower (HP), because if these cars were made only to show people whose looking that you’re driving a Ferrari or whatsoever luxury sports car you have, then they should have made these cars with a 1.1L engine running around 40 to 60km/hr the fastest like the Kia Picanto, right?
Now Iceman... the name I was once called, never can I forget how I got that name, but sometimes I wasn’t really sure if I do deserve the name since I never passed it to another like how it should have been. It wasn’t my nickname of course, it was just actually passed on to me by my mentor, the one who taught me everything I know about racing; the brake works, the shifting, the handling and the stunts, I was trained to be fearless, to push every car I’m in to the limit, because as every Iceman’s motto “Life’s Too Short Not To Be Extreme”, I loved every aspect of racing though I was not recognized from the dark tinted windows, I never cared.
Life was good to me, walking out from some major wrecks unharmed, I was lucky, but still never did that hinder me from racing, I kept on going till one day I met a girl, the girl, it was actually against our principle to love, “we don’t need girls” as we always say, because it ruins our ability to drive, we gain fear, but I never believed that, I went on with what I believed was right for me, I loved that girl and I proved them wrong... that was before we got too attached with each other, and there started the end of Iceman’s legacy, I actually feared for my own life for the first time, I remembered looking at my side mirror and got scared when I saw that I was almost at the end of the cliff racing somewhere going down from Antipolo, that never stopped me before, but now it did and as I go on, I gained more and more fear in racing.
I stopped for a while to think about everything, then it came to me when I was looking at my girlfriend, telling her about my life’s (Iceman) story, she smiled at me, giving me the sweetest smile ever and held my hand not saying anything. Silence went by a moment then I said “I’m quitting” I told her, I realized then that there are a lot of things more worth doing than racing like loving someone to the fullest, then she gave me a hug and whispered “don’t race again or I’ll leave you, ok?”, then without thinking I agreed.
My day actually started like any other normal day, work, school, home, however while I was walking home the other day, I saw my neighbor’s car parked outside their house, it was a white 2000 model Honda Civic SIR, he was giving it a rev, letting people hear how loud his car was since he got this bad-ass muffler, then upon hearing it, I told myself, “STOCK!”, it wasn’t even set-up for racing, it was just all for show-off, cosmetic for short.
When I sat down at my table at home getting my laptop ready as I always do, I thought about what just happened, how I knew it was stock, then everything just flashed back to my training days, my old life, then it just came to me from nowhere, “Life... it’s funny how you think of life, your life and how and why you ended up what and who you are today, sometimes some happenings are even too good to be true that when you thought about it, it just seems to be a like dream you had the other night.” These are the things that came through my mind before I started to write this blog while sitting in my room looking out the window thinking of something to write just to let the time pass by. Then right there and then I remembered the long gone part of me... right there and then I remembered Iceman... Then I realized, Iceman wasn’t really forgotten at all, it was still inside of me waiting to be unleashed one again.
I went to the car after all the thoughts that gave me the weirdest chill in my life, sat at the driver’s seat, held the wheel with both hands tightly gripped, inserted the key and started it, I gave it a bit of a rev; it actually felt good, it felt like heaven on earth. I went several rounds around the block, heating it up, then I thought to myself “do I still got what it takes to be the old me?”, so that thought made me want to try how fast can I still go.
I decided to really push myself to the limit after having a word with my friend over the cell phone asking him the fastest record from Balintawak exit to Subic entrance (via the new highway to Subic, SCTex), “the fastest run was I think 55.26 minutes” he said. I laughed, “That slow?! Bet I can do it less than 50”, I said, then the deal was on that if I make it below 50 minutes it will make me win a reimbursement of all my expenses in doing the run; gas, tires, toll fees, even the car wash is included, who can say no to that right? So I went on with it, running at 240km/hr I got to Subic entrance 44.54 minutes after exiting Balintawak exit. Then from that run I realized while sitting at a gas station inside Subic having the car refueled, I have rediscovered the Iceman in me, living the life I left before, now even better!
1 comments:
It was nice Iceman!
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