My virgin 21km half-marathon

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It has been exactly a week since the run ended and 6 years! to have the courage to take part in 21km.

It was a leap for my running affair.

What took me so long?

I was thinking to myself  these 6 years of running 5km, 10km mostly. If it was so tough mentally and physically to run 10km, can you imagine how bad it would to be? The picture of pain was always in my mind.What if I  ran 10km and my leg hurts so much till I have to limp another 10km? Ouch! Another awful scenario. Pain aside, I think I was simply coward.

So how did I end up running 21km this year?

  • I wanted to find out how it was like: was it going to be painful, what if I could only run half of it and walk the other half? What if I was the last one to finish the run, wouldn’t it be embarrassing?
  • I wanted something different this year: I wanted to challenge myself mentally (more than physically) so on the first day of 2010, I set 3 resolutions ‘witnessed’ by my other 3 friends, one of which was to complete a 21km run. I’m happy to announce out of the 3, 2 goals are achieved.  It was a stretch for me, a good one though! I believe I’ve gained so much from the run.

21km-medalAbout the race

  • So was the run as tough and painful as what I thought it was? NO! It was easier though I didn’t expect so many slopes in Sentosa. I’m glad that the half-marathon route includes Universal Studio. It was a huge bonus for the runners! More so for me since I’ve never been there. Sometimes in life, we think too much, our mind cooks up many ‘what ifs’ to prevent us from moving out of the comfort zone. We need to step out to expand our mental capacity, just like how my 21km run has proven to myself that it’s achievable.
  • Did I run half and walk the other half? NO! Though I didn’t run the entire race but I’m proud to admit I was running for at least 15-16km before I walked 400-500m at every drink station from 16km onwards. It took a much louder voice to overshadow the other to start running after the walk.
  • Was I the last one to finish? NO! I competed the race in 3.5 hours, much better than the expectation of 4 hours. Actually time wasn’t too much a factor for me as all I had in mind was to complete the race.

It was a memorable and proud moment for me, largely due to the running I’ve done over these months. Though not consistent and I didn’t even ran the half-marathon distance before the race, it was a great start for me!

In my attempt to be a minimalist runner, I was running with my running shoes, nike shorts, event tee and a arm pouch with an Ezlink card, ATM card and keys. No mobile phone, no watch, no music player! It works perfectly for me. I love the distraction-free run and perhaps most importantly I didn’t have to walk back another 2km (yes, after the 21km) to retrieve any baggage which was deposited before the race.

Proud of myself.

Wad’s up?

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READING

Recently, I have been reading one book after another. All non-fiction. I enjoy reading them leisurely. Here are the books:

  • Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh (my review here)
  • Rework by 37signals.com (thanks to Daniel for lending me the copy)
  • The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau
  • The Luxury of Less ebook by Karol Gajda
  • Current book: Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

RUNNING

I’ve running on average 10 – 15km per week, without the pressure of time, gadgets. It’s just running and listening.  I have stopped this week due to the haze. Going for Nike Run tomorrow! Excited, first ‘paid’ run for the year then in Dec, my virgin 21km. Really nervous and excited at the same time.

That’s all I’m busy with. Certainly, ending and preparing for 2011 academic year. Another fruitful year ahead.

So, wad’s up for you? Leave me a comment.

=)

Review of ‘Delivering Happiness’ by Tony Hsieh

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I was introduced to this book ‘Delivering Happiness‘ when I was reading Tim Ferriss blog.

What intrigued me at first was the young age of Tony who is the CEO of zappos.com and I was interested to find out how he transformed a company from scratch to $1 billion within a short period of time.

I didn’t know what zappos is all about and suspected it was the brand of the lighter people use to light up their cigarette.

I really love the book as it is written in a story manner, casual yet informative and inspiring. It’s contains the life story of Tony’s experiences, his ups and downs and how he handled his challenges.

I notice quite a number of similarities between entrepreneurs; one of the more distinctive one is that they had very enterprising mindset when they were young. Both Tony and Richard Branson (of Virgin Airlines) shared this in their books.

Who doesn’t encountered failures? It’s the way to react to the unsuccessful experiments which make them stronger, more determined. This is part of what ‘Delivering Happiness’ is all about. It involves the initial struggle of Zappos facing cashflow problems, lack of investors to pump in the money, failure of their 3rd party logistics company to meet up with expectations…

Tony’s (and his team) strong belief in Zappos led him to take risk to purse taking Zappos to a higher level. It’s really WOW for me to read his adventures, given the fact that at the age of late 20 – early 30, he was able to steer the company through such storm. It speaks volume of his foresight and entrepreneur’s spirit.

Next part of the book dedicates to the USP (unique selling point) of Zappos which differentiates itself from its competitors. Initially I thought it would be a boring section as it discusses on the company culture which to me is merely some SOP (standard operating procedure) meant for the sake of being on the wall. I was totally wrong. Zappos walk the talk, the entire company, everyone from management to customer service. I enjoyed the stories by their employees to illustrate each of the 10 core values Zappos follow.

Delivering Happiness isn’t a autobiography of Tony Hsieh, isn’t about Zappos but it’s a book which compasses the essential elements which created Zappos to be what it is now, courtesy of remarkable leadership in a fun and enjoyable environment!

I highly recommend this book for everyone who’s interested to

  • Bring your passion to another level
  • Create a more enjoyable working environment
  • Understand what leaders do and their way of thinking in creating great companies
  • Get some inspirations on creating ever-lasting business
  • Broaden your perspectives on business-building in this new age period
  • Doing differently for outstanding output
  • Get more happiness :)

PS: It was written in the book that Zappos has a culture book for anyone who’s interested in reading more about their cultures through their employees. I thought I would have to pay for their book but instead there wasn’t any payment details when I went to the sign up page. The WOW thing is that I saw the UPS package on my desk 3 days later! Totally blew me off. When they meant fast delivery, it’s really fast!