Completing a marathon had always been one of my lifetime goals. Last week, at the age of 23, I finally participated in the first marathon of my life. For followers in Hong Kong, I’m sure you know which marathon I’m talking about. For followers outside of Hong Kong, I ran a marathon called the Hong Kong Marathon. Although this may sound cliché, running a marathon changed my life. I hope that after you read this blog entry, you’ll be enlightened to take part in a marathon.
To start off, I’ll share some details about my ups and downs throughout the course of the marathon. While standing at the starting line with the rest of the participants, I felt confident and simply happy to be there. I put on my earphones and hit “play” on my running playlist. I couldn’t wait for the race to start and kept bouncing on my feet as a warm-up. Soon, there was a loud “beep” sound. The clock started counting and I kniew it was time to start running. I started off with a steady pace, and found that I was well ahead along with a few other participants. I felt quite proud that I was able to keep a consistent stride from the start, even on my first marathon. As I was running, I must’ve got swept up in the rapid beats of my upbeat music and started to increase my pace. I soon found that I was the only one ahead, and the few participants I was with were all behind me. I knew this wasn’t a good sign and tried to slow down, but I didn’t want to break my stride, so I kept running at the same pace.
When I reached the mid-point of the race, I could feel my tiredness growing by the second. I gulped down a bit of water in hoes that it would magically take my tiredness away. Obviously, it didn’t. I started to be unable to hear my music clearly and my sides started to hurt. To make matters worse, the other participants started to catch up and I ended up being with the participants in the back. At this point, someone next to me fell to the ground and skinned her knee but I didn’t bat a single eyelid. Instead I kept on running, only focusing on finishing the marathon and refusing to help that person. I kept on running while gasping for air, hoping that the marathon would soon come to an end.
What seemed like two hours later, I was finally able to see the finish line. I was holding my right side, clenching at it in pain, as I struggled to take the last few steps across the finish line. As I was crossing the finish line, I collapsed on the floor and gave out a sigh of relief. I thought to myself, “Not bad for a first marathon runner, could’ve been better”. As I got up and started to walk away, I heard the crowd starting to clap and cheer. I peered over my shoulder and saw two runners coming in side-by-side, with one person’s arm thrown over the other’s shoulder. It was the runner that fell down and skinned his knee! I looked at them in amazement and started to clap as well.
Now, on to the part as for how running a marathon changed my life. Very often in life, you need to have the experience in order to actually understand the lesson behind it. Running this marathon gave me the experience and taught me the meaning behind three precious lessons.
First, it taught me the lesson of the importance of having perseverance. If I hadn’t persevered till the end, I would’ve never got the satisfaction of finishing the marathon and completing one of my life goals. Second, it taught me the lesson of the value of struggle. Due to my mistake at the start of the marathon, I had to struggle painstakingly throughout the rest of the race. However, now, after fixing the problem, even while running for leisure, I am able to run for longer periods of time without getting any pain. The value of struggle is that you end up becoming stronger. Third, it taught me the lesson of not always having to come out on top. Upon reflection, I have come to realize that as I sped up in the start of the marathon, I actually subconsciously wanted to put some distance between myself and the other runners, so I could be the first to finish the marathon. I became too cocky just because I was confident with my stride. Now, I actually understand that it’s okay to come in second, third, or even last. The most important part is that you always work hard, fight through pain and do your best in the process.
After running this marathon, not only did I grow physically stronger, I also grew stronger mentally and matured in many parts in my ways of thinking. Reading my blog entry still won’t be able to make you feel the actual satisfaction or teach you the valuable lessons from running a marathon. After reading my blog entry, I hope that all of you will challenge yourselves and take on a new challenge of running a marathon. Believe me, running a marathon won’t be easy but it will ACTUALLY change your life.