My reflections - 8 years of growing as a runner

Thinking there's nothing else more for a runner than just running, you can draw inspirations from my contemplation about my growing life as a runner.

After much thinking, I decided to categorise my experiences into different stages of a runner. As I move ahead in time, I become more acquainted with various aspects of a runner's life and discovered that it has made me a more holistic runner and these interesting experiences has molded me to who I am today.

STAGE 1: Baby Steps to Starting to Run

I picked up running 8 years ago when I was introduced to my school's TAF (Trim and Fit) Programme that rewards us with a shirt if we completed 100 rounds around the school in a year, and together with my friend, we attempted this ridiculous-sounding task. My family was not very active and a chubby-me also wanted to lose some weight, hence I decided to pick up running.

STAGE 2: A Recreational Runner

Seeing how my distances resulted in weight loss, made me look and feel better, the adrenaline rush experienced during and after my runs, I was convinced about the benefits of running. Besides these, I did enjoy unwinding after a tiring day at school with a jog around my green neighbourhood in Sengkang. It also helped when Singapore saw a growing number of run races organised which I signed up for and that motivated me to 'train' up for them. Besides that, I joined my school's soccer team and that had required me to improve my stamina through running and that fuelled my passion for the sport.

STAGE 3: A Competitive Edge

About 4 years ago, encouraged by a university senior, I took a leap of faith to join my varsity's cross country team. Initially, I was rather apprehensive because I had no running background compared to my teammates who were running the Nationals Cross Country Championships since young. However, seeing how friendly the team was and the satisfaction I had gained after a tough intervals workout, I persevered and saw my run timings improve. What I have learnt was that most people just run to race, but through my experiences in the team and my coach, Mr Steven Quek, has taught me that it is more than that - one must LEARN TO TRAIN before TRAINING TO RACE. A competitive runner who wants to improve has to have the discipline to train, rest, eat well and sacrifise a lot. It was then when I suffered my first setbacks in running, shin splints, knee pains, muscle fatigues, but I felt this made me grow by listening to my body, knowing when to push and when to rest. It was also then when I saw my timings improve and my goals in races would not only include a good timing but a good race position, which gave me personal satisfaction and adrenaline rushes during racing.

STAGE 4: Moving Beyond Myself

What's there to do besides just mere running, some of you might ask. There are plenty of paths to take which requires you to run but continue to have varied and new experiences. For myself, a year ago, I took up the challenge of joining my school's aquathlon team. Personally, I feel that I am fortunate to have a coach, Mr David Tay, to help and build my confidence in swimming, whereby I started out only being able to swim a lap, to now being able to achieve good timings in aquathlon races. Swimming also helps in cross-training for runners because it builds up one's cardiovascular system and upper body strength which aids in running. My next goal would be training up for a triathlon, which requires me to pick up cycling and one of my life's goals would be to complete an Ironman. Based on studies, cycling complements running because it is not only a good form of active recovery but also strengthens your leg muscles for running. Beyond myself, I have recently joined a new running group called Running Department which aims to foster a running community in Singapore through running-together programmes and we help to run clinics and pacer services in races to help others improve their runs, as well as achieve personal bests. My aquathlon team also has future plans to adopt charity organisations, as a way to give back to the community. These all does help me focus on the community instead of MYSELF and MY runs, allowing me to gain a new purpose in running.

To all runners who feel jaded or bored of running, I hope this gives you something to think about and perhaps you might just rediscover the joy of being a runner once more.

TEAMNUS Cross Country

TEAM NUS Aquathlon

Helped Mok Ying Ren with a running clinic

More updates..

Really thankful to God for giving me at least a job to look forward to. Although I was rather disappointed that I didn't get my ideal DXO job, despite my confidence at the interview - perhaps it was the grades, or perhaps I was being too overconfident. I decided to accept the SIA job as a Customer Affairs Manager because I didn't want to go too long without an income and was rather sick of applications and rejections. Well, I'm starting officially on 2 Sept 2013, which also marks a new milestone for myself, a step into the working world. Many questions did run through my mind - how does it feel like to have a table of your own and officially have work to account for? How will my superiors be treating me? Will I have good colleagues? I really have to commit all of this into God's hands and stop the worrying.

Secondly, I think my runs and swims have been really stagnating, with the 10k ST run coming up marking the start of another new season of running, it can be quite scary. >.<

Thirdly, I'm looking forward to my short (again 5 days) trip to New Zealand, specifically South Island of Dunedin and Queenstown. Although this trip would actually cost about 1 month's salary, I do hope it will be worth it. Can't wait ;)