November 30, 2003. Memorial Stadium, downtown Seattle. I opened my arms as I sprinted across the Seattle Marathon finish line. The race clock showed 3:46:10. I made it!

I started running in October of 2001 to get myself in shape for my newly found hobby of mountaineering. This was the first time in my life that I actually stick to running for more than one month, and I was apparently addicted to it. But still, running a marathon was something I never thought I would be doing. One day, while reading some climbing reports, I came across a climber’s article about how he wanted to run his first marathon and what he experienced in the race. I was immediately hooked. After all, there are quite a few commonalities between mountaineering and marathoning. Both are extreme endurance sports, both are to test the physical and mental limits of participants, and both seem to be stupid activities to people who don’t understand them. I knew, like that climber, I too would run a marathon someday. During the first half of 2002, my running went quite well. From being able to barely cover one mile just several months ago, I could easily run 10 miles without feeling too tired. I felt I was ready for the big challenge.

At the end of 2002, I set three goals for myself in 2003. Summit Mount Rainier, run a marathon under 4 hours, and run a 5000m under 20 minutes. I know for many people, this list of goals sounds nothing more than just a walk in the park. But for me, who has at best mediocre athletic talent, it is challenging, yet very realistic, if enough effort is made.

I signed up for Vancouver International Marathon and started marathon training. The training was hard. It had me run 5 days a week and gradually increase my weekly running mileage from 24 to 44. Every Saturday was the day for long run. I started at 8 miles during the first week, and then gradually moved up to 20 miles. Before I started the training, the longest run ever for me was just 10 miles. So literally after a couple of weeks, every Saturday was a new adventure for me. I would break my personal record in the longest distance I have ever run and would oftentimes experience the kind of pain and fatigue I never experienced before. I also experienced the infamous and scary “hit the wall” feeling in one of these long runs. As former Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi once said, “The will to win is nothing compared to the will to prepare to win”. This was so true in marathon training and only by then could I fully appreciate the meaning in those words.

Of course there were much more fun days in the training than the painful days. I don’t want to scare away any potential marathon runners out there. In fact, most training days were fun and enjoyable. Every morning I ran on the Sammamish river trail. Along the way, I watched the river gently flowing, ducks swimming, birds flying. Occasionally, I got to see the sunrise above the hills over the east. On sunny days, I could also see the glaciated summit of Mount Rainier (and imagined I would be standing there in just a few months). The whole scene was just too beautiful to describe in words. This was always one of my most enjoyable moment everyday. Even on a bad day when I was huffing and puffing or enduring excruciating fatigue, the proud feeling of the accomplishment after the run was so phenomenal that I felt all the suffering during the run was worth it.

The brutal 18-week marathon training finally ended. On May 3, 2003, my entire family drove to Vancouver, BC. I did not get much sleep that night just like probably most of the race participants. It is always hard to fall asleep the night before a big event and easy to wake up during the sleep. I got up around 4:30AM. After I took a shower and ate a light breakfast, we checked out of the hotel. I also had to carry my two kids to our van as they were still sleeping. We arrived at the starting line around 6:45AM, just in time for the 7:15AM start.

The weather weren’t so good. The temperature was OK, in the mid 40’s but it was drizzling and quite windy. I felt cold with shorts and shirt. So like most other people there, I wore a garbage bag. To most non-runners, it was probably a bit hard to imagine. But the bag was water-proof and wind-proof, and could keep me warm until I thoroughly warmed up.

The race was about to start. After the Canadian national anthem, there came the race count down. This was my first ever marathon. Standing amongst several thousand runners, I was so excited. I could not believe it. People like me could run a marathon. All my life I wasn’t good at any sports. And running was definitely the worst of all. I remembered I was always one of the last kids in my PE classes in middle school and high school. But now here I was to run a marathon. And I knew I would finish it. I might not finish it under my goal time of 4 hours, but I would definitely finish it, even if it meant I had to crawl to the finish line.

(To be continued)