I could never think how much one can learn by just running. It was a beautiful night beside the Caspian sea, with usual wind which made sea scream wild.
May be it’s hard to put all the things I think about during my runs but i can definately tell you that may be it is more than a year that I didn't learnt something new and special in this short period of time. I just love learning and exploring new things and Running satisfied my need much higher than my expectations.
I started my first run with a quote I also shared in my Instagram account:
" It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. Confucius"
I repeated this hundred times or more but I couldn’t run more than 8 kilometers in an hour.
The second day, I chose a beautiful Russian club song from my SoundCloud account and I learned this:
"One of reasons for training is to find the right song to keep you up going"
This translates into: your motivation and little gratification really matters to help you move steady in your life and your businesses.
3rd day I found the organizer of Baku Marathon and joined their trainings. Our trainer, Pedro from Spain taught us a lot about what to do and not to do. I ran 10km in 1 hour and 10 minutes with the group. Honestly it is totally different experience when running with company of people than just running alone. I regret myself for not having a running buddy to run together. Anyway I was a bit disappointed when comparing my results with the 21 km which I should run next week but I learnt to see the half full of the glass which was: "Although I ran almost the same as the 2nd day, but I was happy that my performance really improved when comparing with my first training session. (Note: here’s the second lesson I learnt by heart which you hear from Bill gates who says:
The only person I compete is my yesterday self
So instead of taking a break every km or so I ran for 4km non-stop. So hopefully there were an improvement.
4th day, today and it is totally different day which made me to share my thoughts with you.
Again joining the group Baku Marathon Club event and the appointment was in Flag Square at 8 pm. After few tips by Pedro we started running, again along the Caspian sea. (BTW the route was exactly my reverse route that I trained alone, which means I start from Marriott hotel until the Flag square and back, today it was the reverse.)
Wind beating your face as hard as it can, sweating and running in the group, it’s totally unique experience that I hadn’t have before. This wind made me remember the slogan of the Baku Marathon:
Win the Wind!
We have done several trainings and we head back to flag square, the start point. Here I learnt something new again:
The wind is always there(100% true for Baku case). It’s your choice to run against it and try to beat it, or run with the wind’s direction which made me to create new slogan for the Baku Marathon :
Wind makes you Win!
Here I should clarify what I mean is not going where the flow of the people are going, that's what dead fishes can do when they go in the same direction as the current of the river goes. What I meant is, in competitions, mostly I focus business competitions, it’s your choice how to see this phrase. Overspend and over react to it by going against it or you can use it to your benefits!
After finishing the training and taking some selfies, I chose to run back to my usual start point where I left my clothes. So I was running alone again, but it was different now from previous solo-runs. Why? Because I experienced the group feeling and I can fake it by myself if I can find something that goes with me, step by step just like the lovely people who were with me few minutes ago.
And Aha!!! I found it. It was my shadow, good, yep?
So it also reflects some part of my previous lesson I learnt that: Always try to beat yourself. And to some extent it taught me creativity in not so comfortable situations and how to over come it. The only thing you need to remember is:
Stop excuses! And you will find a way!
And just to finish reporting results, I ran 12 km in one hour, which proved what I learned so far was correct. I understood how much training make you better. More importantly I learned how putting excuses aside and actually starting will make you better and better little by little. Just keep persistance. That's all matters. Let me requote my first lesson
" It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. Confucius"
I’m so excited that I want to share this now. I could wait until the real Marathon and put them all in one, but I believe there are a lot of things I will learn that day which is worth a separate post.
