Big Event and Marathon

Big Event, Marathon

It is already the first week of April and I felt that the time went really fast. There were two major events happening in this week. The first one was the Big Event where the AIB gets involved to a volunteer works for the community for their needs in different areas. So I woke up early in the morning, and the AIB participants were all gathered in the old AIB. I was assigned to the Kita, and I thought we will be playing with the kids or doing some babysitting, but it was not. When we got there, shovels and dumpers were ready, and we started shoveling the playground to change the old sand to a new fresh sand. I felt it would be a easy work with these 20 plus people, but it actually took long time and effort to finish the work. I should have rested more in between just to not get fatigue with my muscles but I rushed to hard just because I was too excited to work. I don’t know why. Then I was very tired after the work, and realized that I have Half Marathon tomorrow, which will be affected by my over work today.

My host dad is such a runner; He runs around 15 km every Monday afternoon in his age of 62. Even more than that, he makes it really fast with less 5 minute per kilometers consistent throughout the run. Therefore, he was a good adviser for my preparation of marathon. He told me several times I have to train at least five times with 15 km but I did only twice with just 10 km. Therefore, the day before, he told me “you should definitely stop when you reach 10 km.” He is the professional and it really persuaded me. On the day of running, I missed my bus because I forgot the bus schedule is different during Sundays, and was in hurry to prepare for the marathon. So I started running, met Sebastian and Yoong on my way, and reached 10 km. But I felt like I don’t want to stop in here. So I just run more and more, and as my host dad said, I just felt really bad after like 15 km. But I did not want to stop really, so I just ignore the pain and went on and on. In the last 300 m, my muscles got me. My both thighs and left calf got cramps, and I was not able to move. But the finish line was visible! I literally cannot give up here. So I was stretching in my place and suddenly, people called out my name “Youngjun” and added “You can do it! You are almost there!” They were totally a stranger to me but they just saw my name under my marathon number on my chest. It was one of the moment that I will never forget, and my legs started to get better, and was able to finish it while running. I was so happy when I finished it, and when my host dad said, “I am really proud of you.” It was very awesome weekend including my walk to Church right after finishing the half marathon.