It was 2020, about six months into the covid pandemic, and I was restless. After a (rough) adjustment period, my inner introvert was beginning to enjoy quarantine a little too much. All the extra time that I didn’t have to spend commuting allowed me to start the long journey to find the girl I had lost many years ago to rigorous academics and strict expectations that only I put on myself. I was a straight A student, several years ahead in college, and heavily engaged in community activism fueled by (justified) rage, but who was I, really?

My best friend and I had picked up the habit of going for walks together almost every day while FaceTiming. After being locked up with only my four walls to entertain me and my zoom classes that droned on while I slept in my bed, it felt like a breath of fresh air to, well, smell the fresh air and see the sunshine. I had tried several hobbies to see if I liked anything, but I sucked at painting, and reading just wasn’t feasible with the amount of academic reading I was doing. But walking was fun and the company of my best friend was even better. Eventually, I really wanted to run. It had been a while since I was involved in sports- in high school, nothing made me feel as free as ice hockey. But it had been a long time since I had been in shape for anything- that fateful semester that lasted about a month was when I had finally committed to going to group fitness classes twice a week that were inevitably ended once we were all sent home, but I still felt so out of shape. None of the random HIIT workouts actually made me feel strong. 

On the days where we didn’t FaceTime, I still left my house at the time where we normally would have. I would try to run, but I’d last about 20 seconds before I would get so out of breath that I’d have to stop. Not to mention that the cold winter air was so dry to my lungs that I’d cough for an hour after getting home. Something had to give. It was a random day of the week when I saw a Facebook post on the UMD fitness page: “join us for the couch to 5k challenge!” It was what I had been looking for, and it landed right in front of me. I signed up eagerly, and began the painstaking process of doing the run-walk intervals that the program prescribed. 

Long story short: IT SUCKED. I could barely hold on for the run intervals, but I promised myself I’d stick through it at least until the 5k at the end. 5 weeks of torture and running about 10 miles a week, on a blustery March morning in 2021, I ran a trail 5k at Black Hill park. And that was how I found my love for running; it was a natural extension to my love for hiking. 

5k is done, now what?

After the 5k, I decided I loved it so much I didn’t want to stop. The next challenge: couch to 10k. At that point, life just felt so good. Free from my 10 hours a week of commuting to get to campus, the extra free time I had was spent reading and writing, hanging out with my family and my best friends, hiking, biking, and finally exploring the neighborhood I had moved to just a few months before the pandemic. Most of my runs were done in the trail behind my house, which I was delighted to discover led to Little Seneca Lake 2.5 miles in. About a month later, I built my mileage up to about 15 miles a week and built myself up to running a 10k (and yes, I used to use a Fitbit *yikes*).

The rest of that spring and summer continued the same way. I still look back on 2021 as the best year of my life. That summer, I graduated from undergrad, started the second year of my 5+1 Master’s, and continued to run. My first in-person race didn’t come until August, when I ran the Georgetown 10k along the C&O Canal. I don’t remember much about that race (I didn’t do race recaps back then), but I just remember it feeling really good.

Fall 2021 and COVID cases coming back down meant it was time to go back to in-person classes. It took a bit of adjustment, but I continued running, finding some spots in College Park to run at. I wanted to continue the momentum I had built up during quarantine, so I decided to get back to my childhood sport, ice hockey, while continuing running. Needless to say, it was tough. Maintaining mileage while training intensely with club running made my legs constantly sore, but I ran the Clopper Lake Trail 10k that fall, and decided to build my way up to running my first trail half marathon. 

Half Marathon & Club Running

Running a trail half marathon meant I had to ramp up my mileage again. Luckily, I was to run my half marathon in late February, and hockey season ended in early February. Hockey season went well, and I was able to train even through a winter break trip to Texas. Now that hockey season was going to be over, I wanted to join club running to see what it would be like. After my half marathon, I told myself. But a week before my half marathon started, my little brother got COVID. He isolated himself, but not before everyone in my family except for me was infected. My race was on Sunday, and by Thursday, I was still feeling fine. My throat just felt a bit funny, but nothing out of the ordinary. As the day continued, I started to get the most intense muscle aches I’ve ever experienced, and I began sweating and shivering. Halfway through the day, I decided to call out from work and just go home. The half marathon wasn’t going to happen. 

It was difficult to defer the race after I had trained so hard, but I couldn’t run with COVID. I decided to sign up for another trail half marathon that would be a month later, and to join club running in the meantime. My first ever club run was neighborhoods, and I turned back about a mile in. It felt hard after coming back from COVID, but I loved easy runs and having people to run with. A month later, I ran my first ever half marathon in 19º weather and snow, then decided to commit to club running for the rest of the semester. I will not lie, I did not know how to train properly at that point. I would get headaches and muscle aches after every long run, because my recovery was so terrible. 

I ran my first ever track workout shortly after the half marathon, and I HATED it. It felt hard, and I wasn’t used to pushing myself aerobically like that. But I had promised myself commitment. So I forced myself to do track workouts until they felt more normal. I remember my first track workout in Ramadan of 2022, and how I literally saw spots and the track spun in front of my eyes because it hurt so much. So I stuck to only easy runs during Ramadan (until this year, I was too scared to attempt another track workout while fasting). 

I continued to train throughout summer 2022 without a goal race in mind, but when fall 2022 started, I knew I had to make a tough choice. That choice was going to be between continuing with club hockey or club running. Doing both was too much, so I had to choose whether I would participate in cross country season or keep playing hockey. It had always been difficult to commit to hockey due to my commuter schedule and the fact that practices were really late and made me exhausted the next morning. The last straw was seeing the timing of games and mandatory practices twice a week. It was going to be club running. I don’t want to make this too long, so the rest is history. I am now in my second track season and training for the 1500, 3k steeple, and 5k, but looking back at where I came from is always humbling and a reminder of why I do this.

This is your sign that you don’t have to be a traditional high-school-to-club-running-pipeline runner to join club running. The growth I’ve had just from joining club running has been PHENOMENAL, and I’ve been able to push myself beyond that which I can imagine. So if you’re hesitant to join us, don’t be! My story is proof that just the desire to join club running is enough.