Fargreen Journal Corner: The mountain goal!

 
 
Image from iOS (2).jpg
 

By: Trang Tran

Last weekend I’ve completed my running goal of 2018: surviving a half marathon race of 21km through a rocky mountain trail in Sapa in Northern Vietnam! I still couldn't imagine that I had done it. Here's how the whole trail looks like:

 
 
Image from iOS.jpg
Image from iOS (1).jpg
 
 

My oh my, it was SO tough! I've always loved the mountains but pushing through an incredibly long run with so many steep and rocky ups and downs was not at all an easy love. In fact, I never heard myself complaining and grumping at something so much in life

Some photos of the trail:

IMG_1959.JPG
IMG_1982.JPG

Running was never my thing. What I had thought of it was something so repetitive and boring that I could never imagine anyone would enjoy it, let alone someone like me who had always been proud of consciously choosing fun in whatever she decided to put herself in. Funny enough, that was the very reason why 1.5 years ago I decided to start to run

At the time, work had been so rocky and somewhat felt quite boring with establishing procedures and routines for a stable operation. All the glamorous fun of starting a business started falling off. I was so scared of seeing myself not being at the usual hype energy level which people often pictured me. I began to feel the burden of putting on the inspirational leader hat. Somehow I believe that there was something you knew from the beginning that it's gonna be tough but you would never have a real feel of it to be fully ready for it before you're actually in it.

So I decided to try long distance running as a personal challenge to fight against the boredom monster coming so close. Also, the idea of training myself to physically sustain my energy level over the long course sounded like exact thing that I needed to learn in order to run my business.

So, off I ran. And I made it! The longest run in my life thus far and also the hardest ever. I was more than just being survived. I successfully sustained my energy till the very end for this finish line victory pose that I had always dreamed of since the very start. Cheers! :)

 
Image from iOS resize.jpg
 

P.s. A friend asked how it felt to climb up to the top of a mountain? Well, it felt incredible to finally get there and enjoy the view but also quite scared and tiring to see that other mountains are waiting for your feet. But somehow I feel like it's also the not-so-boring part of this whole running thing. Because it's hard to feel bored if there's still a road ahead for you to move.

Hope you keep on moving, too!

See you on the next blog!