About Running

I have always been a sports person. In general, I follow a lot of sports, and I have practiced a few of them. However, running is my passion, though I started it late in my life, around the age of 27, but I was good, really good. I was fast and fit, with a low ratio of injuries, and I was capable of completing challenges andraces even without training. Over the years, it has become more of a way of life rather than a hobby.

14 years since I did my PB
and I was way more fit.

In my opinion, what made me resist and continue running was knowing my limitations, capabilities, and understanding my body. For example, sometimes I would stop in the middle of training if I felt I was not ready, or skip an early run if I needed more sleep. To me, I love running and enjoy it, so I do not want to suffer while practicing something I like. This strategy has helped me complete all my 11 marathons under four hours and achieve a personal best of 3h25m with minimal training, as well as completing a full marathon two hours after arriving from the airport following a full night flight. Anyway, I might write sometime about my marathon experiences in detail.

However, according to what I said before, I must admit I am not the same anymore. I am still running, but less than before due to many reasons and changes in my life, especially after I moved to Bucharest. I had some other priorities now, and this took a lot of my time away from running. In addition, some of my friends, with whom I used to run, have either moved, stopped running, or changed their schedules. After a period of time, I lost much of my speed, put on some weight, and at one point I thought it was enough, but my body refused the idea, which made me hope that I would find the spark to run as I did before.

DTiA Team

That spark appeared in the last few months through two things. The first and most important aspect was finding a running group that looks like me. My first running group no longer exists, and although there are many running communities here, I didn’t join any of them for various reasons—timing, concept, place of gathering, etc(1). Until I met my current group, “Descoperă Tara în Alergare,” (DTiA)(2) which means “Discover the country by running.” It’s a passionate group of runners, who, as the name suggests, run every weekend in different cities, discovering hidden gems of the country through long runs. I haven’t participated in any of these long runs yet due to other obligations during the weekend, but I join the runs every Tuesday in a nearby park. I always preferred running in groups, and this group, has motivated me to find time to run more and maintain the intensity. This weekly run and the book have reignited my passion.

Photo from the web.

The second was reading Haruki Murakami’s memoir, “What Do I Talk About When I Talk About Running.” It’s a warm, simple autobiography about his running experiences. Murakami’s straightforward style and detailed insights make it feel like every runner's story—like an old song everyone listens to and feels it’s talking about themselves. The book included many ideas and experiences I have had before or think about, such as how he describes the memory of muscles, which I completely agree with. The book was recommended to me long ago by an old running buddy of mine, Renald—by the way, if Renald ever reads this, I don’t mean “old” by age but by the time we’ve known each other. We are forever young, my friend. Although I wanted to read it for over ten years, I only recently got the chance. I really recommend this light-hearted memoire to every runner.

The writer also mentioned that he is moving to triathlon instead of long-distance running, which is exactly what I am planning to do. I just need to organize my time.

In Christopher McDougall’s masterpiece “Born to Run”, he discusses the “Khanouchi curve” with Dr. Bramble. Paraphrasing their conversation, Dr. Bramble asked, “From the age of 19, a runner starts improving until they reach their peak at 27. After this, they start declining. So, here is the question: At what age are you back to running the same speed you did at 19?” The answer was 64.(3)

I have always dreamed of participating in the Ironman competition. However, at some point, I gave up on this dream. But now, due to all the reasons I mentioned above, I think I still have time to do it. What do you think?

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1- I have already wrote an article about the running groups and partners that I have ran with them under the title “A decade of running” and I still owe them all for the great times we shared.

2- Descoprta Tara in Alergare (DTiA) define themselves on their Facebook page as proposes adventures in new and fascinating places, where you can discover the beauties of Romania while running. Whether it's a trip to the sea, in the mountains, through the plains or even in unfavorable weather such as rain or snow, each run is an opportunity to explore and experience moments of bliss in the middle of nature.(Translated from Romanian by Google Translate).

3-Another Running Book favorite, I just used a summarized the conversation, to read the whole paragraph please refer to “Born to Run” by Christopher Mcdougall edition 2009 Page 239.