Craft By Zen

šŸ“– 4 min read

šŸ”– newsletter   season_1   letters

Second Wind

People who run marathons are sadistic. The feet wear down after a dozen or two dozen miles. Full recovery takes a days. Mental capacity gets beat up. Hunger sets in. To say at the very least, this was my state on Sunday. And Iā€™m saying Iā€™m sadistic.

You think after my first marathon, I wouldnā€™t run again. Despite the critics, I threw myself back in the pool.

Critic: ā€œWhy would you pay to run?ā€ The event is an incentive to get in shape. I dragged myself on extended runs because paid to participate.

Critic: ā€œBut why? You could run on your own?ā€ I guess so, but I like running in large groups. Plus, I like being catered to by marathon volunteers. In this event, that includes the police.

After the run, I love getting small ego boosts when I tell someone I ran the San Francisco marathon. I get an extra boost when they told me how much of an accomplishment that is. I admit, Iā€™m shallow.

Critic: ā€œAre you crazy?ā€ You should have asked me that the first time around.

The SF marathon is held annually. This year, 27,000 runners took the marathon challenge. I feel proud to have finished under the time limit. But I feel like crap that I made some rookie mistakes. Please donā€™t make these mistakes.

Now that itā€™s all said and done, Iā€™m glad I ran again. I got to meet people from all over. I got to suffer with people from all over. I got a lot of cheers from all over.

Someone in the race told me, ā€œNot everyone can do this, you know.ā€ Sheā€™s right. Not everyone can run a full marathon. But, youā€™ll never know if you donā€™t try. I put myself in the arena, and I hope this is your invocation to begin.


Written by Jeremy Wong and published on .


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