Running is a dangerous sport and I say this with the best intentions possible. Once you overcome the painful rolling hills and the occasional freezing blizzards or heavy torrential rainfall it really is a mental sport. I used to be able to run forever, lost in thoughts and completely free. That’s not how it is now and that’s the problem.
Here’s the thing about progress, it’s a slow and gradual thing and for somebody like me who can’t wait for anything that’s a lesson I am still trying to learn. I started really training in grade 8. I ran with the high school Cross Country team in November for the first time and I fell in love with the sport. The progress I made that first year was amazing. I went from a 28 minute 5k to a 21 minute 5k in months. I travelled and competed as the youngest and only middle schooler on the Varsity team and was 5th runner. I placed in the top 15 in both races and we even won the whole competition. I didn’t run track that season but I continued to train over the year. My Freshman year of high school was also good. I came second in Cross Country on a hard course in India and I PR’D all my events in track (800,1500,3000) and came third in the 3000.
Then, I moved. It wasn’t the move that changed my running. It wasn’t the fact that I moved from flat, desert Qatar to wet, trails Hong Kong. It was my lack of commitment. I ran Cross Country in the fall and I trained but it wasn’t with the same love and desire. I trained because I felt like I was obligated too, because it was “my sport”. I still loved to run but it was different now. I started putting my social life first when before I was easily able to balance both. I moved to a new school and a new country and didn’t know anybody. The training in HK was so different then in Doha and I didn’t like it. I started dreading going to practices and everything was not how I was used too.
END: this move I believe has helped me in so many ways even though at first I was only viewing it in a negative light. I learned how I am afraid of failure and not progressing but I am trying really hard even now to take that and use it to my advantage. To not again allow myself to feel so bad and to continue to grow and come out of that spiral I felt, to train harder and harder and make my next year the best one yet. Thank you to Hong Kong for helping me discover just how much this awful sport means to me and how much I love it.
A Running Journey 