Road To 21K

What worked for me was a big dollop of DISCIPLINE + a huge chunk of MOTIVATION + great amount of DETERMINATION and last but not the least (which I think is the most important one), pure MIND OVER MATTER. As defined in The Free Dictionary, MIND OVER MATTER is "the power of the mind to control and influence the  body and the physical world generally" or "the willpower that can overcome physical obstacles". Most of the time,  I'd find myself with thoughts like "What are you gonna get out of running?", "You're punishing yourself", "There are so many fun things to do than running, like a Scandal marathon?" C'mon, don't be judgmental! Don't tell me you've never had those thoughts? ...because there really are more fun things to do than running...BUT the big difference now is that I've DECIDED that I want to do it. When 2016 started, I had told myself that I would ACT on my goals because really, who would make my goals happen? JUST ME. Therefore, this is me acting on my goal of getting healthier and fitter!

Last March, Joei and I signed up for the Nike Women's Half-Marathon happening in May. At first, it was just one of those random things that we thought of doing together but didn't really act on, like doing a book club, or making an exercise vlog (*video blog...haha! I know, right? Can you imagine us doing that? But at least now, we've started blogging...close enough. Ok sorry for the brain fart!). Anyway, that's why one late summer night in March, I just registered out of the blue. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? 

So here we are, training for our first EVER half marathon. If we were to be super strict about the schedule and the program, we should be running about 15km comfortably by this time. But you see, Joei has a full time job as a lawyer plus she's a blogger, while I'm a full time mom to 3 growing-by-the-second, active kids plus I run a baking business. (Wait. Did I mention that my kids are active?) So squeezing time to work out and run is really a big effort. For me, I either have to wake up super early or work out at night...or on rare occasions, work out while watching the kids, which is what I did when I ran my first 10K. 

My daughter had tennis lessons that night and since she wanted to show off her progress, I ran around the tennis court while she was playing. Nice right? Killing two birds with one stone...but it took a whole lot of EFFORT and DETERMINATION. Imagine running around in circles for an hour? If I wasn't determined to run that day, I would have given up after the 10th round. I mean, THAT was pretty boring!!! First there was no view (not entirely true because my kids were there and they were motivation enough). Second, doing something that repetitive was agonizing haha! (exaggeration!)...but you get my point? That's when the big D (determination) needed to take the wheel. I was determined to finish the 10k and not waste my free afternoon. I'm glad I did because I think I did pretty well for my first 10k. That's a big push to continue on with the running program.