New York City Marathon Finisher. A dream come true!

I grew up watching NYC marathon on TV in my teens. Finishing it was an important milestone and a great learning experience. It meant a lot to run this marathon in the city where I grew up. To have my family cheer for me. To cross the finish line. To finish strong. To give back to my community.

This race would not have happened without your help and I am grateful for your support. Thank you, everyone, who made donations to NYRR Team for Kids. It’s a really wonderful organization. All children should have access to fitness programs and be given an opportunity to try out running for themselves from a young age. To have a mentor. To be inspired. To feel proud of their achievements. To be confident in their own skin. All of these experiences have a great potential in influencing the future. I am a strong believer that the lessons learned from running can change one’s life.

It took me a while to get into running. I would like to think of myself as a dancer first.

I did not start running until senior year of High School and at that time I don’t think I could run for 5 minutes without stopping. I started running slightly more when I was in college, but it was mostly at the gym on a treadmill. I started running more seriously a few years after graduating from college. I remember going to the gym and pushing myself to run for 2 miles. It was really hard and frustrating.

I was inspired to start running when two of my coworkers completed one of NYC Half Marathons. This was back in 2010. At that time, running a distance of 13.1 miles seemed incredible and completely incomprehensible. It felt like an amazing achievement. So bold. So daring. I promised myself that I would conquer that distance one day.

Fast forward 4 years, I decided that 2014 was a good year to start training for my first half marathon. Surprisingly, it didn’t take very long to train for it. Ballet workouts definitely helped. After about 3 months of running, I crossed the finish line of Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon in 2:24:20. It felt like a victory. But I decided not to stop there. If a half was doable, then I should try a full marathon…

Of course, life was happening. I got busy. With a new job, running became more and more sporadic, even though I did put in over 500 miles that year and did consider running LA Marathon in 2016. I even started training with LA Leggers down by the beach in Santa Monica… But then we moved to a new city and things got hectic again. I had to put this dream on hold.

I gave running a try again in 2016, but it was even more sporadic. To say that I was busy was an understatement. To test my limits, I would go out and run a half marathon and feel good about being able to finish it, but deep down I was sad. I wasn’t training enough and the results reflected this bittersweet truth. At the end of the year, I figured, there will never be a perfect moment. I just need to sign up and find the time. That’s how I got myself into SF Marathon. Before training for this race, I have never done anything this demanding in my life.

A few days after finishing SF Marathon and set a new goal. I would run NYC Marathon 15 weeks later.

I have to say, it was a very ambitious goal. Both the body and the mind need time to recover from the arduous regimen of a 26-week training that runners casually put them through. By committing to another marathon, I have extended my regimen to 40 weeks, a full-term baby! And it did its job. It changed me. Today, I am proud to call myself a “strong” and beautiful Barnard woman.

Also, today I can’t imagine my life without running.

Stay tuned as I plan on restarting my training for marathon #3.