I have always been asked two very important questions by a lot of people I,e.
When and how did I start running.
It all began in 2010, with the open university Geneva ( UOG Université Ouvrière de Genève) where I enrolled for French classes,with options for evening sports,I was particularly drawn to the annual snow shoeing event because I was fascinated by it,so I tried it out and it was really fun and much more interesting than I expected .
During lunch break one of the organizers came to me and asked me if I do any kind of sports and i said no I don't, and then she said I look very fit anyway, but wonder if I would like to join the weekly gym training at the university, and that the athletic team also participate in some local and regional competitions,The incentive to participate in the competition was very attractive to me, so two weeks later I joined the group,
Almost immediately some one suggested to me that I could run in the coming week if I wanted to try.it was a 9.3km distance and I took the opportunity for a trial,
The race was in versoix, it was a very cold evening and I did not know how to dress correctly for the race, because I was very inexperienced.
However of the about 300 runners that participated that afternoon I came 8th position. The minimum position for an award. So when they called my name for the price I was not sure if it was true until they called my family name. Behold that was my first try and my first price.
The motivation was huge So I started to train even harder to improve my future performances. The passion to improve got me into training everyday. I came 10th in my second race and was now invited by my team mates to join in the Geneva marathon where I was advised to do the half marathon (21km) since I did not prepare sufficiently for the full marathon.(42km)
Of the 2000 participants for the half marathon I returned 32nd position with a time of 1hour,30mins that was brilliant for a starter and I was sure I could do better.
However I could not walk after I crossed the finishing line , two days after I went to see my Physiotherapist and he told me he thinks I have stress fracture and it could be because I had been training too hard and he wanted me to go see my general practitioner for more tests. After my medical tests with the GP it was conformed that I had stress fracture , so I was not allowed to run for another two months to rest my legs.
So I had enough time to recover from the general stress and when I returned to running the year after I did the full marathon (42km) where I finished finished under 3 hours with an overall position of 12th and my age group result of 8th position and since then running has become part of my life.
After I did the marathon I feel I can do anything I put my head to , it gave me the opportunity to know that I have inner strength and mental capacity which I was not aware of before and also become friend with pain than to avoid pain, because if you do running you will have to go through pain at certain point and learn to overcome it.
This year I also started running trail , for me it's better than road race.
My childhood friends and my family will tell you I never did sports in my primary, secondary school and even during my university years. But just this all started when I started leaving in Geneva and especially after my cancer treatment, but before then I did not do any kind of sports but only loved watching football as a supporter of Manchester United, though I never played football .
Through my running I got to know 100s of people , and joined different running clubs and groups like PPC, , Geneva runners, Trail group and individuals that I still train with .
Most of them are like family to me than friends, especially the UOG team and PPC!
2011 marathon towards finishing line
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