“Ouch.”
This was my mom’s comment on my Facebook post back in January where I said that I registered to participate in the 21-kilometers-long Kyiv Half Marathon in April.
“Not ‘ouch’ – ‘yay’!” I wrote back.
The experience was actually both.
Since the early years, I was a chubby and lazy kid. School (I went to two actually) did not help. Imagine 30 teenagers who have just finished their gym class in an average Ukrainian school. They are red and sweaty after 45 minutes of jumping, running, doing sit-ups and push-ups.
However, they don’t get to take a shower – because there is no shower. Instead, they crowd in a small changing room that doesn’t even have lockers, and change, stuffing their wet and smelly clothes into the school bags. Then, they go and have several more classes. Not an appealing picture, huh? It put me off sports for a long time.
Another demotivating factor was the achievement standards that Ukrainian Ministry of Sports and Youth sets for schoolchildren. According to the recent ruling by Sports Minister Ihor Zhdanov, a 13-year-old girl has to run 1 kilometer in 5.05 minutes to get the top grade. For a 17-years-old girl, it’s 100 meters in 15 seconds. To compare, the world record in 100 meters run for women is 10.49 seconds.
And this isn’t that bad: In my school days, the standards were higher than now.
Some gym teachers also practice yelling and name-calling to “encourage” students, which hardly helped my love for the gym classes.
So it wasn’t until 1.5 years ago, when I was 27, that I started my first-ever regular exercise routine: jogging.
I was motivated by one of my friends, who has been posting pictures from her morning runs and boasting about her progress on social media. Being a completely sport indifferent person, I felt jealous, and, for the first time in my entire life, I wanted to try running for fun.
Last April, on the day of the 2016 half marathon, I accomplished my first 10-kilometer run – in the park though. That day I promised myself that I would take part in the next year’s run. In January, I registered for the 21-kilometer run, and things got serious.
I went full-force at the training – I didn’t want these 21 kilometers to be my last ones.
Except for a few occasions when I was sick or had no time at all, I had six workouts per week – three weight workouts in the gym, and three runs. When I say I had no time, I really mean it – twice I invited our babysitter to stay with my kid while I went on the two-hour run. I also had to review my eating habits, cutting out junk food and alcohol. Well, most of those. Besides, I started going to bed at 10 p.m.
In the morning of April 9, the day of the half marathon, I was anxious. I could barely talk, and I was shaking – either because of the upcoming run, or because it was 6 degrees Celsius and very windy. But as soon as I gave my coat to my husband and joined the crowd of runners, I calmed down and felt warm and safe.
Kyiv Post Lifestyle editor Alyona Zhuk is about 100 meters away from the finish line of the Kyiv Half Marathon on April 9.
Kyiv Half Marathon was one of the most emotionally powerful experiences in my life. I felt that all these thousands of running people were not my competitors, but rather members of my team. I felt that we had the same goals, same challenges, and that we supported each other. About 10,000 people from over 50 cities participated in this half marathon along with me.
Moreover, hundreds of people cheered us along the running route, singing, waving, dancing, holding funny posters. My favorite were the Imperial Stormtrooper, a Star Wars character, dancing on the Pedestrian Bridge, and a woman holding the sign that said: “Run like you are being photographed.”
I will definitely run the next half marathon in Kyiv. And I know that there will be even more of us next time. The fact that more people participate each year shows that there are many others like me, who get motivated by other runners and join the community.
By the way, I credit myself with inspiring at least one future runner, too. A friend, who came to support me at the half marathon, ended up buying her first running shoes that same day.
