Running - Start Small - Think Big

Run To Compete / Run To Live

Running since I am a kid, 6 or 7 years old.My first competitions however, I ran with the age of 12.

I always loved running and I still do. I like to get out of the house and hit the road. There's hardly anything I like as much.
At the age of 15 I started training for the first time in my life on a regular basis. I was training for a 6k race in my small home town. I had no clue which time I could/would or should run on this distance. I just knew I wanted to run it better than the year before when I had stitches and had to walk for a few hundred meters.

The embarassing thing about it was, that my class colleagues where watching me but I just couldn't run anymore.
I finished this race but I just remember that lots of runners where passing by. The time? I can't remember. But what I do remember is, that I came back to this competition again, the next year...

So as already mentioned I started training. I trained 4 days a week on average and trained for 3 continous month. I remember it was really hard on some days to go running. You have to imagine that I didn't have a mother or father who were motivating me or telling me to keep focssed. I had to figure out a way for myself.

How I did it?

It was a time when I started reading some books about successfull people. My favorite book at that time was from a dude called Bodo Schäfer. He influenced me a lot in my teen years.

So back to the training. When the day for the competition came I was afraid to go there. I think I was afraid, although I had trained, to run a worse race then the year before, but I just had to compete.

In these days I actually wanted to build a team with my best friend Andi and my father Günther. But both of them rejected to participate in the race. Andi was just not feeling so well at this day and my father wasn't trained enough.
They thaught I would be sad if they joined me in the team and would run a bad time... Actually it wouldn't have bothered me... but what can you do...

So I was there alone and also my motivation was vanishing. I knew I was a bit talented in running and I really loved it... but I mean, I was that young little boy competing against grown ups.
I thaught I had no chance to come close to a good result.

So the race started, we were about 120 runners, I guess. 23:30 later I passed the finishing line and I was pretty happy anout myself. I have run in competitions before but I always attended them because my teacher asked me to go there... but I never subscribed for a course myself and trained for it...
I think I finished the race on 15th place or so. Can't really remember but about this place.
With this race I started to believe in my running talent. I knew I could train and run fast, faster then anybody else in my school class.

Afterwords I attended a few other races. These were school cups where kids at my age participated. And I almost always was second, never first, for some reason.

Until approximately 1 and a half years after my "first" race when I competed at the regional school championship. I had 7 or 8 competitiors from different schools from my region and I ran first over the finishing line.
As we were the best team in my region. we  participated in the Austrians school tournament, which was in Vienna.
Also here I was first finisher, but also just had 3 competitors. I was 16 or 17 years old and finished with 4:24:5 minutes for 1.500 meters.

For me this was a great time as I never had a trainer or coach. I just ran for myself and could reach this time.
In the years afterwards I started my military service and then I went to study. Running still stayed a part of my life but I just ran very unregular. Sometimes I just didn't run for 2 month and then I ran 2 times a week. But I didn't really get some training benefits out of it.

I have participated in a half-marathon 2009 which took me 1:42h. Unfortunately I ran this distance with casual shoes. One week after the race I still couldn't go stairs because it seemed as if my bones were broken. I remember when I learned at the university library. There was no elevator and I had to head up the steps into the 1 floor. It was a pain in my ass. I lifted myself up the handrail.

I believe I could have run faster but my feet started hurting at 4k already;) As I was a student I couldn't afford running shoes for myself. I worked next to my studies and could hardly afford my housing and buying food.
Nevertheless I also attended some other races at that time. Actually beginning with 2007 when I started running the 5k in a university championship. I ran good but not very well.
There were about 250 competitors at an average and I made the following places:

2007: 35
2008: 20
2009: I couldn't attend
2010: 65
2011: 35 again
2012: 9
2013: 29

Should I be proud about these results? I don't know. My best time on this distance at this races was 20:39.
But I also attended other competitions so as the vienna night run where I made the 130 place with a time of 18:55 on a 5k in 2012.

My best time till now. Actually I am training hard since 1 and a half year now and have just competed twice. The one race with the 18:55 time, and the race where I was 29th. This race actually should have been MY race. I trained over a year for it and was very enthusiastic. Unfortunately I hadn't trained 5 weeks before the race because I was ill for 2 weeks and went on a vaction for 3 weeks after that.

I flew home from china one day before the race was and that just killed me. As I have eaten just junk food in China and hadn't slept so well in the aeroplane I wasn't really fit.

When the race came I thaught I could defend the 9th place I had made the year before but no way.
I ran about 3k and then got stitches. I could hardly breath... just started far to fast... and had to jogg really slow for 500 meters... I guess I was at 12 position at that time... and I lost another 16 positions until I started to run faster again. I finied 29th and that's the story...;)

Now I am fully back in training and I am focussing on my next run on 25th of August.
This time I will hopefully make my dreams come true!;)
I would be happy if you could comment on your experiences as well. 

Greets Jeffrey