To run or not to run??

A friend told me about her timing for 800m run few days ago, she clocked 3:38 min. I told her it's quite a good timing for a first timer, and I dig inside my memory to come up with some strategy she can try to improve her timing.

7 years?Or maybe more??I had stopped running since I graduated from Uni. And even then, I was not as active as I was in secondary school when daily training was part of my life. Day after day, we trained hard, we ran, we lifted weights, then we ran more, just so we stayed fit and improved our timing. Coach was strict, training were harsh, we struggled but we managed, arrived home tired and exhausted. Those were the tough days, but not all are pain, I had some really nice memories too. Running took me places, and I made friends from all over the country, who attended the tournaments with the same goal, to win and to create new records. Running also won me medals, money and fame which I still treasured up to now.

Winning made me hungry for more, the attention, the envious look from others, I continued to train hard, and when I finally became the top in my favorite event, I began to worry about losing my place to a newcomer. I participated in local tournaments with anticipation of winning coupled with pressure, pressure of being No.1 which is followed by the relief when I managed to keep my place. I remembered how worried I got when my friends screamed :"behind you, just behind you!" during a run, I pushed myself just to ensure that I was not overtook, and turned to look behind me when I passed the finishing line just to realized that second placed runner was actually quite far behind. My friend had played a joke, at that moment I realized how severe my "winning disease" is, and I only got over it when I left school, away from all the tournaments, away from people who knew I was the best in my event. Is that why I do not really care about winning anymore nowadays??As I do not wish to relive the pressure which comes with the win??

I had not participated in any competitive events since then, let alone running events. Did I do it to avoid my "winning disease" from resurfacing, or was I just tired of running? When friends busy training for marathon and asked that I joined them, I told them that I do not feel like running because I felt like I had run enough to last me a lifetime!

However recently more and more friends are participating in running events, friends who had never run before. They were so excited, constantly reporting their progress, sharing photos and telling me about their experiences. All these awaken something inside me, I felt like maybe it's time to pick up a running shoes and give it another go, this time I'm doing it for fun and not to prove to anyone that I am the best. There will be no coach who is setting my targeted timing, no coach to check that I ran 10 laps or only 9 laps, no coach to tell me to keep going when I was half dead, and no one to judge if I am good enough to represent the team or not.

Yeah, maybe it is not such a bad idea to pick up running again....so my next step would be to find a suitable running shoes. This time, I shall decide my timing, my training!