A milestone in my life

Today was a very special day. It wasn't planned, but it turned out to be a very memorable day for me.

Since July, I have been training for a half-marathon. The reason why I started this whole thing was because Yusuf decided to sign us up. I was originally pretty angry that he signed me up as well, but come to think of it, it is very good training for me to keep in shape and push myself to be more active. I then started running 5km every other day, then 7km, 10km, 12km....

Finally, this morning, when we do our Saturday run, something changed. I ran with Yusuf's wingchun Master, Master Law, and 3 other people who are also training for the half-marathon. Instead of my normal 12-14km run (still considered a long run in my training), we actually pushed and ran the full half-marathon (13.1 miles or 20.96km).

We ran a 7km route 3 times. First time, we slowly jogged to warm up and I felt very energetic as we ran it. The second 7km was when we pushed into full gear and took longer strides. The last lap, however, was a different story. I first started to not feel my legs, because they were on automatic already. When we had 3 miles left, I started to feel my legs again, this time, they were very heavy wanted to stop and rest. I had to focus and push through, telling myself to take one step at a time.

The last 3 miles was a battle, my legs wanted to stop, but I had to tell them to keep moving. Now, I see why people say that marathons are more of a mental challenge than a physical one. After what seemed like forever (more like 30 min), I finally made history in my life. My first half-marathon is complete!

I felt so accomplished that I called Yusuf right after (he worked til the morning and was snoozing when I ran), then texted my friends to let them know too. But by the evening, I felt it. My legs were aching so much that I was in pain sitting, standing and the worse is walking stairs! I hope my legs will heal soon....