Running changed my life

When I was running today, I was pondering my running habit. It's the end of 2009 and a good opportunity to retrospect my life, especially the running habit.

I started running from about 2007, to prepare for Vancouver Sun Run.  That's the first time I seriously start running and preparing for a race.  Before that, I was running in gym during work-out as a warm-up.  I used to run 3 times a week with 30 minutes covering 5k, on and off.  I trained together with Kenneth, a pretty good long time runner in our company.  We ran every Monday at lunch time.  My plan was to finish Sun Run within 60 minutes. We followed the training plan created by Kenneth, ran about 15-25 minutes each session, plus warm-up and cool-down.  During the training session, my confidence was built up gradually.  One night, I tried to run 10k on the treadmill in the gym of our apartment and I made it.  I can still remember how excited I was and I was anxious to tell Kenneth that I had made my first 10k in my life on treadmill.  I really believed that I can finish Sun Run 10k. The Sun Run wasn't too bad and I made it in 56:56 the first time.

I wasn't a runner at all in my early time.  I run sometimes in the morning, usually 2k, urged by my parents in middle school.  I was bad at running, jumping, because I had no interest and I thought I had no talent in them.
In my university, one roommate who is an avid runner run for 10 years.  He went out for a running almost every night.  He didn't inspire me but his persistence had impressed me.  I found the first time that running can be so addictive to a person.  I started running at the fourth year after I recovered from a severe headache due to nose inflammation and lack of activities.  I ran couple of times at night.  I don't remember the details, but I thought that it wasn't too bad as I had no bad memories.

The second time I tried to run was during my GRE preparation.  As Mr. Yu Minhong mentioned, you may run 2,400m every night to encourage you to score 2,400 during the GRE test, which is the 100%.  I am a kind of guy easily motivated and I started running again.  I don't know how much I ran every night, but I do remember that I ran at least half an hour in the humid and hot summer night, almost every night.  At that time, I found running not boring to me, as my brain wasn't rest and I can think of anything during the running.

My interest in running resumed after the first Sun Run, but hadn't yet formed a habit of running.  The second year I attended Sun Run with a better time of 51:56.  That's a bit improvement to me and my interest in running was ignited eventually.  I was very confident that I can do a better job in running.  I decided to pursuit a higher goal of running.  I registered the Victoria Half Marathon in the Fall.  And I then attended the running clinic of the running room.  I was training for the half marathon in the summer time.   I did couple of long run from 12k to 16k.  I was confident again that I could made the half marathon.  At the same time, I had purchased the Garmin 305 running watch and two pairs of professional running shoes.  I checked the runner's forum daily to get inspired by other runners' stories. I went to Victoria with my parents to attend my first half marathon race in my life.  The experience was great to run a race with thousands of runners, in a beautiful city full of scenic views during the race. I made the race in 1:56:xx, which gave me a good boost of running enthusiasm as I could finish my first HM in 2 hours.

I kept running after the race and I had attended the Harley to Harrison 100K relay together with other 7 runners.  I was the first leg of the relay.  I got up at 4am in the morning and started the race around 6am. Our team did pretty good, ranked No. 5 in non-professional runners.  Like a miracle, I hadn't had any serious injury in my running, maybe because I hadn't pushed me too hard. :-)

The beginning of 2009 unravel the climax of my running habit for my 34 years of life.  I had registered the Vancouver Marathon 2009 after I finished the Victoria half marathon.  I started training with my own plan, a confident and aggressive plan.  I planed to finish my first marathon in 4 hours, which is not impractical based on my time of half marathon.  I started my training in January, when the road were still covered with snow. I ran downhill from the top of Burnaby mountain, which is really a bad idea.  I injured my left knee in the second time I ran downhill.  The injury turned out to be the first serious injury of running, ITBS.  I felt the pain during my training on Burnaby lake and I had to cut my training plan.  I heavily cut back my mileage and run very slow with Ying in the lunch time to get a slow recovery.  I did massages and bought supplements to help the recovery of the knee.  I did a long run in March for about 20 miles. I did it slowly and did no harm to my knee.  After that, I had confidence again to finish my first marathon, although my goal had been adjusted to just finish strong, instead of 4 hours.  The Sun Run added some more confidence in my running. I finished my 3rd Sun Run within 50 minutes.

The Vancouver Marathon was my first marathon.  The journey had been covered in my previous post "Vancouver Marathon".

My running interest kept going high after the first marathon. I then registered the Okanagan Marathon in Fall. This time, I didn't want to be too aggressive.  I strictly followed the Hal Higdon's 18 weeks marathon training plan. I only missed 2-3 times running in the whole 18 weeks' plan.  I can still remember that how I got up very early in the morning to finish my 12k, 20k running plan during my vacation to Ucluelet, how I stayed late to run 11k watching the sunset, how I managed to finish the 20 miles running on treadmill, how I run freely in the downpour of rain...  I am still amazed at my capability to finish the 18 weeks' plan rigorously. It's a life changing experience and the training really paid off.  I exceeded my best estimate during the race. The details of the race is recorded in my post "Okanagon Marathon PR'ed".

My life is completely changed after two marathons.  I am now a very confident person in running.  I also believe that with proper plan and preparation, people can reach targets that they can't even think of in the beginning. I learned a lot from running and it benefits me both physically and mentally.  Running changed my life forever.