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Last summer (2008), I heard one of my colleagues talking about his preparations for running his first marathon ever. Somehow he seemed so motivated and ready to work hard in order to finish a marathon race that I felt deep respect. I thought it could be a great challenge for me too, so I stated with runs of three or four kilometers. Feeling sweat run over my face after many years of being a couch-potato, I remembered the euphoric feeling and sensations of a good workout, and I loved it!!

I'm living in Japan where the summers get humidity percentages in the eighties and nineties so the summer time is not the best for practicing long runs. I tried to do two runs a week until October. then it started to cool down and as my physical endurance was build up little by little I increased my weekly runs to somewhere between five and seven kilometers. It felt really good and mentally I was completely convinced that I would be able to finish a marathon race.

From November (2008) after browsing the web about marathon running, I started to do some simple cross-training like sit ups, push ups and playing with 1KG dumbbells. Very basic stuff but it felt good to work on other parts of my body while resting between running days.

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