Long distance running is the greatest physical and mental test I ever faced.
I ran my first half marathon in spring 2024 and I clearly underestimated what it took to run 13 miles. Around mile 10, my knees and hips were in excruciating pain. I was trying my hardest to move my legs at a running pace, but I was actually just speed walking. At that moment, I felt utter disappointment.
Since 2020, I have been extremely health conscious. I strength trained and ran (albeit casually) regularly and I took my diet very seriously. But even with 4 years of good physical training and nutrition, I found myself 3 miles away from the half marathon finish line, questioning whether I would be able to reach it.
Leading up to this race, I envisioned myself gracefully running through the crowd of people that lined up near the finish line. I thought I would be giving my friends high fives and smiling as they recorded my feat. But in reality, I was limping, breathing heavily, and had my head down as I tried to muster the last ounce of energy I had left to cross the finish line.
I finished that half marathon in 2 hours and 19 minutes. Afterwards, I spent the rest of the day sleeping and icing my legs. I literally couldn’t move my body. And for weeks thereafter, I couldn’t get around without limping and experiencing pain in my joints.
I vowed that I would never run another half marathon again.
Fast forward to summer 2025. Ever since the half marathon, I had aimlessly exercised for over a year. I still strength trained almost every day and ran here and there, but I lacked direction in my training program.
One day, I was having a conversation with my mother-in-law and she declared that she wanted to race in a half marathon. I was startled. She was almost 60 and hadn’t exercised regularly up to now, but she wanted to spark change so that she could take better care of her health. I was inspired. She was about to start her journey to take on the race that absolutely destroyed me one year prior.
I needed to redeem myself, so I decided that I was going to stand at the half marathon start line again one day. But this time, I was going to take it a lot more seriously. I studied marathon training vigorously. I completely overhauled my exercise routine to focus on running. And I focused on aspects of running I didn’t realize were important.
In February 2026, I finished my second half marathon in 1 hour and 53 minutes. I set a goal to run it in 1 hour and 50 minutes, which I unfortunately didn’t accomplish. I was still proud of my 26 minute time improvement from my previous race, but I was even prouder of what came thereafter.
Immediately after my half marathon finished, I stood back at the start line again, but this time for the 5K race. This was my mother-in-law’s first running event. She wanted to race in the 5K and 10K distances before eventually running the half marathon. Given we had been on the running journey together for over half a year, I wanted to partake in the race with her.
In total, I ran a little over 16 miles that day. Once the 5K was over, I was walking perfectly fine without any pain in my joints — a stark difference from the aftermath of my first half marathon. I was also back running and training in the gym again after a couple of days of rest after the race.
During this training block and race, I learned that long distance running is a craft. It is a culmination of not just physical training, but various other aspects — like mental endurance, nutrition, fueling, types of shoes, and gear. All these pieces needed to work cohesively during the race in order to produce the best results.
The single biggest change I made was my training program. I got injured often when I first started training for long distance running. That was certainly because I was running too fast and beyond my physical capabilities. So for this training block, I slowed down. A lot.
I spent most of my miles running at a Zone 2 pace (i.e., a pace where you keep your heart rate at 60% to 70% of your max heart rate). Training at this slower pace taught me one very important lesson — patience.
I learned that long distance running is centered on patience. How you perform in a race is a culmination of all the training that you stack up to that point. And in order to stack enough training, you need to ensure you don’t get injured. To avoid injury, you have to run at a slow enough pace that won’t overstrain your body. And if you are running slow, you are spending more time on your feet and in your own thoughts. This was a test of how long I could endure this process.
And I fell in love with this process.
Every time I went out to run, I wasn’t just running for myself today — I was also running for myself tomorrow, 10 years from now, and so on. I wasn’t just running for my next race. I was also running for the 20 races that came thereafter.
Every day I would learn something new about running or myself and that new realization was going to help me down the road. For all the finance nerds out there, this was the perfect demonstration of compound interest through physical and mental training.
Before I ran this second race in 2026, I set a life goal to complete all 7 major marathons. I have never completed a full marathon, so I was setting the bar really high. I am telling you this goal because I want you to come on this journey with me.
I want to share the triumphs and disappointments, the highs and lows, and the optimism and doubt that I experience throughout this journey with you. I want to share the real raw emotions in hopes that you can take away something for yourself from this journey.
So pull up a chair. Grab a cup of coffee. Join me on this journey.
Welcome to The Intentional Café.
