04 Jul A timely reminder
I used to be fast on land. I used to be able to run below 10mins for my 2.4km, and my 10km PB is 44:11mins. I used to be able to run 10km everyday, with a split below 5:00min/km.
I went for a run at 3pm-ish yesterday. I must admit it was warm and it might have caused me to slow down a little. I only managed 9km and finished in 44:34mins. I know in the normal layman terms, that is considered pretty fast. To a track athlete, that’s ridiculously slow but to me, I know what I’m capable of and because I haven’t been running as much and as fast as I should be, it is disappointing.
I’m writing this down because I need to be reminded. I know that one day I will reach my goal of being able to beat my PB, probably even do a sub 40mins. Challenging, but not impossible. I’m writing this down because when I was playing netball in my teenage years, I hated running. Running was a punishment. We had to run when we dropped the ball, we had to do suicides when we did a mistake. I despised running. Then, there was a time when I tore my ACL and couldn’t run for 6months. I went for a surgery and couldn’t even walk. I remembered the first day back in my running shoes and I couldn’t even complete one round around the stadium without feeling like I was about to die. I remembered my brother lapping me and I had a stitch on the side of my tummy. Next thing I knew I was running 20-25 rounds daily and coming in podium finishes in random races in Sydney. Well, no big deal because they’re not real competitions with the elites, but let me remind you that I’m not a runner.
I remembered those days I hated the erg so much because I totally sucked at it. I went to a training camp and the coach told me that any 2k erg timing above 8mins is bad. My PB then was 8:20mins. Last year, I pulled a PB of 7:02mins. I never knew I was capable of doing that.
I only recently learnt how to swim freestyle. I’ve always wanted to complete a triathlon race because I want to know what is so fascinating about doing a multi-sport event. I want to know what being crazy feels like. I sit here today, thinking about how scary it is to be swimming in open water, to be cycling on the road again because me and the bike just don’t get along. But thinking about what I’ve achieved in my life, especially when it comes to proving myself wrong and surprising myself to be able to do what I never expect myself to do, I think this is going to be one of those things I will reflect on one day.
Let’s wait and see. X
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