Running! Who really likes running? An honest question.
If I say I do, would you
believe me?
Maybe, maybe not, sometimes...
It's definitely a love & hate
relationship. For me at least. Some days are just better than others but in the
end I always end up running somewhere.
How did it start?
Well, I have been into sports
since as long as I can remember. My parents always told me I was a little
bundle of energy. It was hard for them to keep up with me.
So, that's when I started
playing soccer, then came swimming, tennis, karate, and basketball.
And, I was pretty good at it,
so it just made things so easy for me.
I used to hang out with the
guys a lot because they used to play sports, and I wasn't really into cosmetic,
Barbie, hairstyle and all the girly stuff at the time. You could say I was the
''tom boy'' type. I still am but more girly. A dress from time to time never
hurt anyone!
I actually never like to run
much even though soccer involves a type of running. It is different. You don't
run on a straight line for 40 mins. It is
more exciting than just plain old running.
You know what I mean?
But it all changed when I went
to University in the US, I had to run 2 miles for pre and post-season training
as a freshman.
OMG! I hated to wake up at 5:30
AM to get ready for that 2 miles. It was painful. Not just waking up but that 2
miles. Urrghh!! You know it was early because you wouldn't hear the birds chirp
and cold mist surrounded the track.
I felt like I was in Michael
Jackson’s ''Thriller'' music video or that scene from ''Remember the Titans.'' Do
you know the one I am talking about? In the cemetery when Denzel gave his
player that speech… Yes that one!
Anyhow, the word that was going
through my head during those runs. One word – awful!
That was only freshman year,
and I had 3 more years to go. No way, rosé! So, I had to change my mindset and
make running a piece of cake.
Piece of cake. I was fooling
myself. Totally! It probably was the toughest summer training I had.
I was determined to make the
following pre-season easy and to do so I had to be consistent, determined,
self-discipline and focus.
And that's how my journey
started. My running journey!
I'll be honest it was grueling
at first to just run a mile. I hated it for my life. So, I stole the month of
June, July, and August from my mom's calendar and put them on my wall. Then, I decided
to make a training program. I mean a running program. Not sure if I actually
followed it but at the time it seemed like the best idea which was a big step
for me.
I'm not the organized kind of
girl. Sorry guys!
And boom, in the middle of the
summer my first mile slowly turned into 2, 3, and 4. At the end of the summer,
I was running 10km almost every day. I just couldn't stop. I had this urge to run
all the time everywhere. I was competing with myself all the time. I wanted to
beat not only the miles I was doing but the time as well. I wanted to do the
fastest mile, then the fastest 5km and so on. That little voice inside my head
telling me I couldn't do it is now telling me you can do more. Slowly, my runs
became longer, faster and my hate turned into love.
I became a runner! I was
growing wings.
If you are a runner and reading
this, you know the feeling. It's the same thing after a good workout at the
gym, a CrossFit session, or after a basketball game – the feeling of
accomplishment after you put the effort in and just went out there and did it.
There's absolutely no better reward than a good sweat!
Slowly, I started giving myself
goals; running the Nike 15km in Toronto, then the Nike Half Marathon in San
Francisco, the NTC in Los Angeles, and the Nike Half Marathon in Korea. In the
last few years, I would say I have accomplish a lot more than I thought I
would.
For the life of me, I thought
one day I wouldn’t run a Half Marathon. Come on! I even told my elementary
basketball coach that I didn't want to play because he made his girls run during
practice. I came a long way. I can tell you that!
Not in a millions years I would
have imagine that running would become part of my life. Now, it's something I
can’t go a day without. If I skip a day, I have to run twice the next. And of
course, I have days where my body is telling me don't do it. Not today, Marie
Li! Please! And yes, I still go out there and run.
I have ups and downs all the
time. And that's normal. Everyone does. Sometimes your legs feel like bricks,
other time its fatigue, exhaustion, injury, work, personal problems, hangover,
or laziness. We all have those days.
You can't always have the best
run all the time but the fact that you went out there and did it brings you
closer to your goal. Sometimes it takes more time than you expect it but a step
forward is better than no step at all. Everyone experienced a setback when
training for an important competition, and I'm not just talking about running
here. Every single athlete had to go through some rough times during their career
and that is injury, pressure, consistency, or results. It is how you decide to
handle it and go through that rough patch that differentiate you from being an
average athlete to a professional athlete.
It is during those difficult
time that perseverance, dedication and positive mindset bring you a long way.
There is this quote from
Murakami that I like a lot: ''Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running
and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The ‘hurt’ part is an
unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the
runner himself.''
I like this quote so much because
so many people give up the moment they feel pain but what if you didn’t give up
and decided to give it your all. You never know what you can accomplish until
you try. Right? So why give up? Giving up is just an easy way out. These are
only excuses you are giving yourself for not pushing through those walls when
you know you could have done more.
I don't blame you. I have done
it, actually multiple times, but it just make the process of achieving your goal
even longer.
There's also another reason why
I like to run so much. Maybe some of you can relate.
Every time I am going through
something, and I need to think or have some alone time; I like to go on a run
or play ball. In general, sport is a stress reliever mechanism — a therapy. It
takes my mind off things. My mind suddenly stop thinking about all the problems
or drama that is going on around me. When I run, I think about nothing,
absolutely nothing, and that is the best part of it. The only thing that
matters is how far, how fast, or where I am running to.
I am in my own bubble when I
run. Nothing around me exist except the track and myself.
It's the best feeling in the world!
But having a buddy to tag along is just as fun as running alone or better.
It's the best feeling in the world!
But having a buddy to tag along is just as fun as running alone or better.
And, when traveling the best way to
explore a new city is to run through it.
So tie your shoes and let's go on a run together! I have made amazing friends and the more the merrier!
So tie your shoes and let's go on a run together! I have made amazing friends and the more the merrier!
''The miracle isn't that I
finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.'' - John Bingham
