The Journey to Ironman (2) - "Starting is half the battle" by G. Kent Iu

(This post was originally published on May 21st 2018 on Medium.)

Sometimes, starting is the hardest part. Because starting can be scary.

It has been almost 2 months since I started my training, but in the beginning, it was not all that easy.

For next few days after my brother told me to run 20km in a week, that was all I was thinking about.

But that was exactly all I was doing, “think”.

I feel anxious, I could not focus on doing anything else. The longer I waited, the anxiety just got stronger.

I started to come up with different excuses to not start.

“It looks like it’s going to rain.”

“I will do it in the evening, it’s too hot outside.”

“I will do it tomorrow morning, tomorrow will be the day!”

“Oh, it looks like it’s going to rain again.”

A few more days have passed. I had a dream during one of my naps.

In the dream, friends and families were gathered in the other room. They were talking about me. In the conversation, one of my friends asked.

“When will he start?”

Then I woke up, and I knew. This is it.

It was 30th of March.

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Man, was the run hard.

I could hardly catch my breath. I felt weak on my knees, I felt heavy.

But I told myself.

“It is ok, we all have to start somewhere.”

My second run was 2 days after.

Then, there was my third, forth & fifth.

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Sometimes, starting something new is not easy, it can be scary.

It’s scary because of doubts, or the fear of failure will all be trying to stop you from taking the first step, the step to cross the edge of your comfort zone.

It takes courage to take the first step, and determination to keep going.

I’m glad I’ve taken the courage and started.

Below is the run from last night, and it was the longest distance I have run ever.