之前毫无经验和准备，却出乎意料的半马是什么体验？What It's Like to Run Your First Half Marathon With Zero Training

"The world just threw you a feint — don't turn tail and run."

A Half Marathon With No Preparation and No Experience

I've never been one to plant flags, but once I've made up my mind to do something, I have never — ever — quit halfway; I'll go all out and find every way possible to get it done. Ever since I wrote out that wishlist on my birthday last year, I'd been hunting for the chance, right up until April 2017.

Date: April 16, 2017
Place: Beijing Olympic Forest Park
Event: The first half marathon of my life, done.

I've loved sports since I was a kid. I like all of them, but running, basketball, and badminton most of all. And while I've always been into sports, before this I was basically self-taught, doing it my own rough way. To be specific, my running had a few hallmarks:

1. Steady acceleration, sometimes several bursts of it;
2. No systematic training, little stretching;
3. No attention to nutrition or fueling.

I've also known plenty of people who used to be all fired up about running and now don't run at all. The reason is always the same: running wrecks your body! And most of the time it's the knees. There are many causes of running injuries, but the main ones are bad form, weak muscles, and skimping on a proper warm-up before and stretch after. The most common symptoms that follow: patellofemoral pain syndrome; patellar tendinitis; iliotibial band syndrome; meniscus damage, and so on.

Take two recent, telling examples. The Wuhan Marathon. It had 20,000 runners, and by incomplete count, nearly 4,326 received treatment — mostly muscle strains, cramps, blisters, and soreness, with no serious injuries found. Wuchang Hospital took in a flood of runners; after the Yunnan Baiyao aerosol spray they'd stocked ran out, they went and bought up the entire supply from nearby pharmacies on the spot.

The Qingyuan Marathon in Guangdong. By the municipal health commission's incomplete count, nearly 20,000 people took part, and the total number treated came to 12,208 — 9,838 with muscle cramps, 1,743 sprains, 194 abrasions, 20 who fainted, 107 with abdominal pain, and 306 cases of collapse and the like. Ambulances were dispatched 23 times; 17 people were sent to hospital, 5 in critical condition, of whom 3 were admitted to the ICU and 2 to cardiology.

So starting in 2017, after seeing so many people run into physical trouble, I gradually took the issue seriously — adding more training and stretching, paying closer attention to systematic training, diet, and recovery. You can't chase a fleeting thrill and pay a heavy price for it. Running is meant to be a pleasure; it shouldn't turn into a farce or a flashpoint for injury.

For the half, I'd read some experience posts online: on race day, get up early to empty out and stretch and get ready; don't start too fast, try to hold an even pace; drink in small sips and drink on time — bring your own water bottle, and take salt tablets 40 minutes before the start and every 5K after the gun to prevent dehydration; take energy gels and bars before and during; after 28K it gets rough, and you have to grind through — you can slow down, but you absolutely cannot stop and walk; stretch afterward.

Out of all that, I managed only "run at an even pace" and "don't stop." Nothing else. I didn't bring a water bottle, didn't drink a single sip along the way, didn't eat the chocolate I'd packed — but thankfully, on one burst of spirit, I saw it through.

My longest distance before this had been 12K, and that was just three days earlier in training; then I jumped straight to 21K, so I was more than a little unsure. I even told a few friends before the run that I was afraid I might drop dead. Thankfully, everything was fine, and in the days that followed my body had no bad reaction.

The moment I finished those twenty-plus kilometers, honestly, I was on fire. One, I'd broken through my own limit; two, I'd checked off one of the items on the wishlist I wrote on my birthday last year. All that was left was tired and thirsty — brutally thirsty. I hadn't had a single bottle of water during the run. When I finished I downed three bottles of water back-to-back, plus a banana. I lay on the ground, staring at the sky, and it felt genuinely wonderful, genuinely blissful. In that instant, I realized the half wasn't as hard as I'd imagined.

Later, back home, I saw all those beautiful marathon medals online, and it hit me that medals could be this gorgeous. For a collector, it's simply intoxicating — hopelessly hooked. Seeing how many lovely medals other people have, you really feel it: the joy of stacking up medals and certificates and pennants one by one is honestly no less than the joy of stacking up cash.

The old wishlist isn't fully checked off yet, and now a new running wishlist is beginning. New races are already calling to me. The happiness this sport can give you — bit by bit, you'll make it a way of living, a part of your life, even something like a faith.

How to Pick Up Speed and Keep Going

A lot of people ask: in middle- and long-distance running, the further you go the more your energy drains, and everyone runs out of gas — so how do you keep accelerating, and for so long?

Plenty of gurus already teach how to stick with daily exercise, so I won't go into that. What I'll mainly share is how, within any single run, to keep going or to pick up speed. My personal takeaway is that boosting speed and endurance in middle- and long-distance running comes down to three things: set the tone, fix the breathing, hold the line.

By "set the tone," I mean the first kilometer, or the first lap, is absolutely crucial. Because it's a distance event, if you go out too fast in the beginning or on that first lap, the later stages will suffer for it. So the early tone matters a lot. And that tone has everything to do with your personal feel — anyone who runs regularly knows that finding your rhythm makes the run half the effort, far easier; that's exactly what I mean. So at the start, you set your opening tone and your most familiar rhythm and feel according to the day's plan — and then you can cruise the rest of the way.

Fixing the breathing is simple. Getting your breathing to a normal, steady level during a long run is a must.

Holding the line has two sides: one is exercising for the long haul, the other is finishing the workout on the given day. How do you finish it that day? Because a lot of people run halfway, or nearly to the end, and still give up when they can't hold on — for that problem, beyond endurance, the methods I use are three: one, listen to music; two, shout; three, body language.

Music: it's well known that music can influence and even change people's emotions and behavior. So I mostly listen to hip-hop and rock — a charged-up beat, melody, and lyrics can hand you a lot of power.

Shouting: it might sound a little strange. It probably looks a little "odd," too. Plenty of people who've seen me run have heard me shout. When you're about to hit your wall, when you feel completely spent, one good shout can give you a lot of power.

Body language: take a look at a couple of pictures. Don't you feel that Figure 1 is full of confidence and strength, while Figure 2 looks utterly deflated and weak?

(Figure in original: the confident type.)

(Figure in original: the weak type.)

One look and it's obvious. You should get what I'm saying.

What Sticking With Running Has Given Me

I really started running in earnest in 2015. Back then I had no goal — not to lose weight, not to get fit, and I didn't think running all the time was anything impressive — but I've always loved being in it. Only looking back do I realize it was all worth it: every unit of pain earned me at least ten units in return.

1. It lets you witness and record your own progress: at first I thought 5K was my limit, then 8, then 10K; last summer I ran 10K in one go in 49 minutes; then I thought that was my limit; until last week, when I completed the first half marathon of my life, smoothly and perfectly.

2. It gives you confidence: dead of winter, blazing heat of summer — if I could stick with something as hard and as "dull and tedious" as running, then anything else, I can do too.

3. A healthy body and good sleep: the benefits of running are all-around; I can often feel the vitality coursing through my body. In today's full-blown fitness craze, you can see plenty of young, gorgeous, toned, energy-radiating men and women online who look impossibly youthful — and many of them are married with kids. For women, if you want to stay young, working out is far more reliable than all those unscientific skincare secrets, than things like laser facelifts. Skip exercise, and even if you were the campus beauty or heartthrob, past 30 you'll go downhill fast. When you spot a onetime god or goddess gone soft in the tabloids (before-and-after photos), all you can do is gossip or sigh about it. The common view is that running beats any beauty regimen or cosmetic by a mile. As for me, my sleep has always been great — I've almost never had insomnia.

4. Curiosity about the body's limits: running has let me break through, again and again, things I was sure I couldn't do, driving home a deeper truth — most people's level of effort is so low it never even gets to the point of competing on talent.

5. A humble mindset: on the track, on the road, in my WeChat feed, I meet plenty of people older than me, faster than me, going further than me; once, running laps, I even got lapped twice over 10K by an auntie. Whenever I start to feel like a big deal, I think of them, and I see how small I am.

In the end, looking back at my original goal, I realized I'd only ever meant to run 10K — and somewhere along the way, without noticing, I'd run a half. When you run, you are your own whole world; you throw yourself into it completely, with nothing else on your mind. Every time I finish and watch the sun sink in the west, I'm filled with joy and contentment. That happiness peaks after every 5K, every 10K, when the world goes so quiet you can hear only your own breathing. Looking down at a T-shirt soaked through with sweat, my heart is brimming with confidence and satisfaction. I hope this happiness stays with me for life. May this high never come down. I've felt the joy this sport brings me, and I hope you feel it too. Start running. Start running and keep at it, and only then will you know what, for you, will actually change.