Baseline

I am about 2-2.5 months into my half-marathon plan as I write this. In other words, my fitness is still marginally baseline. I've managed very modest runs once or twice a week, averaging 5km each. Only in the past 1-2 weeks have there been some small wins - a 50min 8.4km run (around 6min/km) last Thursday, and 3 runs (barring any disasters/emergencies tomorrow) getting my mileage up to 20km this week. Put into context, I'm only just managing to squeeze into 1 week what I will hopefully be able to do in 2.5 hours by early next year! Yikes.

Today I thought to myself - 'No one else will ever know just how hard it is...'. Or for that matter, just how easy it is, if it were that. Since this half baked idea dawned on me (and don't even ask me how), I've been met with all sorts of responses - 'Why don't you do a full marathon?', 'Wow!!!', 'Are you serious? You are going to have to train you know?', 'Good for you!'... and I also imagine the real thoughts behind the words - 'Wuss... what's the big deal?, 'who cares?', 'I bet she has no idea...', 'I'm glad to see her getting more active!'. Reality is, it doesn't really matter. We all come from different places... and particularly with running, I am learning just how personal it is.

Who else is going to know just how much sacrifice goes into running 3 times a week in addition to tennis and yoga? Who else is going to feel the pleasure and pain? Who else is going to be there when the alarm rings at 6.30am? Who else is going to be there halfway up the hill with no end? Who else is going to be there when you finish the hardest run of your life? Who else is going to set the goals and extend the limits for you?

I'm still struggling to figure out how I am going to (1) get my mileage up and (2) get a bit more speedy. But I have gotten this far... and I will look back and say that again in 2 weeks time, in 3 months time, in a few years time. I was the girl who, 4 years ago, did no regular exercise at all and had to be convinced (over months) to take up tennis again. I was the girl who never imagined it was possible to wake up in the morning for yoga. I am now the girl who, all in, manages 6 days of exercise per week, 2 of which is done before work. I am the one whose 2009 'Happy Journal' has now morphed into a training log. I am also the girl who now thinks that I will strive for the modest, but ever so slightly out of reach, possibilities. I will try and therefore I can.

"The greatest of all mistakesis to do nothing because you can only do a little"