How I Started Running

My running career started in early June. Me, my dad and my mom signed up to do the “Toronto Challenge 5k” for running and walking: My dad running, my mom and I walking. It wasn’t hard; I discovered that if I walked even 5 kilometers, I wouldn’t feel tired. I thought about doing this every once in a while. It wasn’t a bad idea.



Fast forward to a month later. After a few days talking about it and practicing, I was finally ready to do my second race, and the first one where I’d run: The Beaches “Jazz Tune-up Run” made for practicing for the major “Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon”. I’ll admit, being my first true run, there were many points where I had to stop and walk, or where I wanted to give up. However, I pulled through, and that is what truly ignited my talent for running.



Just very recently, I trained for yet another race: the Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon, Half-Marathon and 5K. I had really started to get to enjoy running now. My running began to get more and more intense, until I finally achieved a great goal: I had finally ran five kilometers, non-stop. At that point, I knew that if I could run 5K like that, I could do it again.



And I did.



I've come a long way from that slightly-lazy kid with academics, but no progress in athletics. Now, as I train, I am trying to come up with new strategies for running. What should I do? Try to run nonstop? Run for 10 minutes, and then walk one? Or maybe run and take only one long break? Should I see what my running area looks like? Well, you know what they say: Only time will tell.