5 lessons I learnt from training for my first half-marathon
Early this summer, I accomplished a personal milestone of sorts when I trained for and completed my first half-marathon. 13.1 miles of perseverance on a warm sunny morning in Madison — with a hint of breeze, cheers in the air and an adventure ahead. Completing a 16-week training program from Nike running club truly empowered me into challenging my inner potential. Along the way, I not only learnt a few things about running as a sport, but also about myself.
Running blogs will often talk about buying the perfect shoe for your gait, wearing the best running gear, finding a running buddy and optimizing your nutrition and water intake. While these physical aspects are inevitable in boosting your performance, not many are aware about the inadvertent mental strength that one can gain from consistent running.
(1) The best way to begin is to start.
The greatest virtue of starting a new habit is the fact that you decided to arrive at the starting point. Buying a new pair of lightweight running shoes, syncing your favorite playlist onto your watch, bearing the heat or cold to get out there are signs of your commitment. From now on, you are the master of your mind and your habits are under your control.
(2) It isn’t about the numbers.
Starting new habits can also mean an inevitable obsession with parameters. What’s your mile-pace? For how many minutes were you in Zone 2 ? What’s your 10k pace? There are endless numbers that your fancy app data may tell you. For a recreational runner just starting out, these numbers and their different ranges can be overwhelming. The key is not pay too much attention to these details, but gradually build up your endurance at first. The fact that you can already be consistent with your habit of running is a personal achievement to you.
Discover your true running form, pay attention to your breathing patterns and your inner potential. With a few tweaks in your lifestyle, sleep patterns, recovery rates, these numbers will gradually fall into place. And whenever this happens, you would have already truly fallen in love with the sport — these numbers would be the least of your concern.
(3) Find your flow. Running is a meditative sport.
With consistency, you develop a mind-body connection that empowers your run. As you embrace your running form, you will notice a rhythm — the rise and fall of your legs, your periodic breathing, the chirping birds in the morning, the various green shades on the trees. Pay attention to every detail around you and allow yourself to be encompassed in the present moment.
This meditative state will not only improve your mood, but also carries forward during your day at work, helping you deal with the commotion of everyday life.
(4) You are as tough as your mind.
Fatigue hits us, all of us — including the fastest runners in the world. But the journey to your end goal (in this case, reaching the finish point) is being appreciative of how far you have come. The decision to get outside, embrace your strengths and flaws and the community around you should give you a lot of strength in navigating your running journey. The only next step that you get to think about is the next mile — not the 20 odd miles ahead of you. You face your challenges one stride at a time, akin to life.
(5) Be open to self-discovery.
With long distance running, you are left with open roads and a lot of time to contemplate. There may be that one inspirational podcast or song that sends you into a reflective state. Or just your thoughts during the run may give you new ideas — a story about your past, the way you reacted, a new solution to a problem you’ve been facing. Allow yourself to be lost in these thoughts and make sure to log them in your running journal. You will be surprised with what you have learnt about yourself by the end of the training plan.
You will always notice runners to appear to be the most calm in the room, they are spiritual, creative and always open. They’ve learnt to embrace the good and bad runs, and are always looking forward to their next run.
And whenever I do feel like quitting, I always go back to one of my favorite authors, Haruki Murakami’s quote from his book, “What I talk about when I talk about running” — “I’m not going to lay off or quit just because I’m busy. If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I’d never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit.”
