Training + Star Wars

Monday morning I went on the tracks again. Christmas break wasn't over, but neither was my commitment to the team. We ran 12 laps, which is 12x400=4800 meters. 3 miles. The coaches only gave us 45 seconds between each round. I knew it was going to be hard! I have to thank Dad for waking up early to wake me up and give me a ride to school, though he had to go to work anyway.

More teammates came that day than on Saturday, including my guiding friend Sean, a veteran runner, and my old middle school mate Daniel. So I wasn't the only freshman that comes to practice during break, which makes me glad that others are working hard alongside me too.

Thinking that I'll be running a whole lot more, I held back at first. On the first lap, my time was 1 minute 50. I thought that if I kept that constant speed my whole way through it will be enough, but our coach told us to pick up the pace. After all, the purpose of training was to improve, and we can't do that without pushing our limits. The group I was in, the Novice group, was known to be bad at doing that. We have a lot of slackers unwilling to do their best - I see some runners running off to a detour, then just hang out there once they make sure that they're out of the coaches' sight. Others don't come to practice at all! I wasn't aiming to be a professional runner, but I wanted to work up my physical perseverance through the track program. So I listened.

Trying to keep up with the group became difficult halfway through the routine. I was falling behind, still barely maintaining a 1:50 time while the rest of the group caught up to a 1:40. Yeah, I was only an amateur, a newbie. Dammit, we were only halfway done! 6 more laps to go! I reminded myself to think of the ambiguous cup, which could be half full or half empty depending on your perspective. In this case, I needed to see it as "only 6 more", not "another 6 more". I was already out of breath and would probably faint if I tried to speed up. 2400 meters wasn't easy for me. So I planned to allow myself to fall behind a little for the 1st lap of the 2nd half, in order to regain energy. I could use that as a rest period, which isn't cheating because I'll be faster afterwards. And it worked.

I hit a 2 minute on the 7th lap, a whole quarter lap slower than all the others. My mates and coaches must have assumed that I couldn't keep going much longer. That's why they were surprised when I went ahead of everyone else on the 8th lap, and kept that position on the few laps left. I constantly thought to myself that the more I run, the less I'll have to run, and that motivated me to keep going. Finishing something is easier than starting it. "Hey man, where did you get all that energy from?" "Yeah, we were all expecting you to pass out, then you just went ahead of everybody, in 1st place!" On the last lap, I went all out, gave it my all, held nothing back. Why not? The finish line was right there. I guess that my teammates had the same idea too, or, even better, I inspired them to do the same, because I did not finish first despite my remarkable time of 1:33. The veteran runners beside me could pull that time off every lap had they tried their best, but it was a nice achievement to me.

At the end of the day, Coach rewarded us with free bagels, which was a nice perk for staying committed during break. Of course, that wasn't the reason I came. I have enough motivation already.

I watched the new Star Wars film on Christmas day. Don't worry, no spoilers here. A very anticipated film, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was. I thought it was great. I loved it so much that I stayed until the very end, until all the credits have been rolled out, to fully embrace the epic. This is coming from someone who hasn't watched any other Star Wars. That doesn't mean I knew absolutely nothing about the world-renowned franchise!

I first heard about Star Wars from my friend Eli's dad Gio. They came to China from California for a summer because Gio was a friend of my dad. I knew zero English back then, so I didn't learn anything from Eli, but Gio knew some Chinese so he told me about Star Wars and gifted us with an Obi-Wan figure. It was cool. I also got occasional R2-D2 toys from McDonald's happy meals.

Then I came to America and was much more exposed to Star Wars. Sean was obsessed with Angry Birds, and downloaded AB Star Wars when it came out. The Angry Birds game told a bit of Star Wars storyline, only through very brief comic strips at the end of each group of levels. It was enough to get his interest as well as mine. Sean began to ask for ABSW toy sets, and he only wanted more and more. He ended up with a box full of ABSW figures and 3 drawers worth of ABSW building sets. That was how we got into Star Wars.

Now after seeing the new movie, I became very interested in the actors. I immediately looked up the actress who played Rey when I came out of the cinema. Daisy Ridley. What a gift. I don't know what it is about her that makes her so amazing. Fitness, badassery, and the British accent had all been my obsessions. Guess what? Daisy worked out 5 hours a day for her Star Wars role, played a badass character in the film, and talks in a lovely posh English! She's my favorite celebrity now.