Rock Climbing & Loving What You Do

I always believed that the worst thing that could ever happen to me in cross country is to hate running. I may suck at meets, feel horrible at practice or uncomfortable around my teammates, but at the end of it all, the love of running will always bring me back to the starting line the next day.

I understood that the daily physical and mental agony I allow myself to go through could only be fueled by a real passion for running. A burning desire to put on my own pair of shoes when I see others running in the park, or when I turn on the TV and watch the professionals sweat their guts out.

Therefore in addition to the actual daily workouts, I also do my best to fuel that energy and love for the sport because it is important to stimulate not just the body and the mind, but also the heart.

You may say that love for a sport should come naturally, so that no "artificial" maintenance is actually required; and that sounds true and noble in theory.

However in my reality (I don't know how true this is for other people), I do get extremely tired physically after a season of workouts and weekend races... and I have not one but three back-to-back seasons of running. That's basically nine months of daily running plus a track meet every other weekend. My point is, track & field is one of the most physically intensive sports and if you're not tired by the end of it, you must be God.

Also, this isn't the first time I've mentioned this, but track is also very mentally demanding. Probably even more so for the top performers who have to deal with more pressure than the average person like me. Yet even I feel mentally drained, especially after each race. I also get tired of trying to encourage myself in my head during practices, trying to shut out the negative talk of my coach and my teammates, telling myself not to give up, to go faster, to train smart, etc.... So much mental energy is thus consumed that I feel drained in this aspect as well.

So what keeps me in this sport if it is so tiring and seems so painful? It doesn't even seem logical when you compare the pros and cons of running since the cons seem to out-weigh the pros.

Well there's the heart... Which brings us back to the topic of fueling my love for running.

Do you see now, if I didn't try to fan the fire in my heart, it would probably be extinguished after four years of physical and mental exhaustion?

Well one of the things I do to keep my interest up is to subscribe to a running magazine- "Runner's World' which always provides inspiring stories of runners and races. Flipping through the pages always excites me because it is a reminder that there is a whole world of runners out there who go through the same frustrations yet continue to run anyway. It makes me want to go out and run when I'm supposed to, even when I don't feel like it.

I also keep up with watching videos of races or going to professional races because it gives me a glimpse of greatness in the sport. It reminds me that no matter which level you are at, beginner, amateur or professional, there will ALWAYS be somebody faster than you or chasing you down.

And last but not least, to break up the monotony of running, I like to engage in other sports as well. Now this is like killing two birds with a stone because when you do other sports, it helps to train other muscles that you may not necessarily emphasize during a run, therefore helping you to maintain general fitness in all parts of the body. It is a great form of injury protection because if you only work out certain muscles all the time, the other muscles or ligaments get neglected and become weaker and therefore more injury-prone.

Besides running, I also lift in the gym and swim once or twice a week. Doing running drills in the pool is fun too and doesn't hurt your knees as much as doing them on the ground.

Of course there's also rollerblading, basketball, biking, etc...

And yesterday, I just added a new thing to do to my list!

Rock climbing!

I went with my teammate Shona and an ex-teammate Andrey to a climbing gym in New York City. It was the cheapest one we found online- per entry is 28USD including gear rental.

The Manhattan Plaza Health Club is actually an extensive gym with a regular gym, pilates studio, swimming pool and other amenities. But best of all it has a indoor climbing gym on the rooftop.

Shona was the expert among us three because she had climbed with her high school rock climbing club before. Andrey had been doing it for almost a month now and they were both very patient in teaching me- the novice.

So apparently there are two kinds of rock climbing. One is with the harness and one is without. The one that you do without the harness and ropes is called "bouldering" and it's more difficult because after you get to the top, you have to climb back down. However if you were to rock climb with ropes, you don't need to climb your way back down.

Shona and Andrey are both certified "belayers", meaning that they're both certified to be the person holding the ropes on the ground while the other person climbs up.

Apparently you need to be certified because belaying is not as simple as it looks and could be dangerous if you didn't know what you were doing. Non-certified belayers are not allowed to belay for another person and you'd have to take a certification class before being able to do so. I didn't take one because that would've cost 60USD and I'm not that rich.

However Andrey and Shona secretly taught me how to belay, much to the chagrin and disapproval of the people who worked there and I got to try it once when they weren't watching.

I was scared stiff! I was afraid that I would let my friend down too quickly and or that I'd mess the ropes up or something, but I didn't... Whew! But while I was belaying for Andrey, a worker noticed me and came over and told me to put my right hand back down (I had it up) with a look of "these... stupid kids...." on this face. I thought he was going to scold me!

The rocks are all labeled with colours on them to mark the routes you are going to take.

Double lines mean the beginning of the route, so if I were going to do the route of 5.9 difficulty, I would start at the rock with double blue lines, then climb up only using rocks with blue labels on them.

The lowest difficulty in the gym was a 5.5 and the highest I saw was a 5.12. However Andrey and Shona said that this gym's standards were a little bit off because they were more difficult than labelled. Shona conquered a 5.9+ which is, I guess like a 5.95 and Andrey's best was a 5.8 I think. I only managed a best of 5.7. Thought my arms were going to die!

That's me attempting a 5.6 that should have been labelled 5.10000000! Needless to say, I didn't complete that particular route and asked to be let down early...

We so much fun!

Walked back to the PATH station through Times Square.

The weather was quite cold and rainy and it made the Empire State building look really cool.

Hunger drove us to Sbarros again for Italian fast food and we got back to the dorms near midnight.

Today after practice, I am going swimming. I wish I could do rock climbing every single day but not only is it expensive, it is also very tiring. my fingers are aching as I type and I couldn't even scratch myself this morning.

Hopefully I can save up enough money to buy the 3 month student pass in the winter (it's 165USD). I will be heading to the climbing gym more often then, since it will be nice and toasty indoors!

Anyway... It really is true, that to do something exceptionally well, you have to begin with loving what you're doing. I think people who have jobs doing what they love are so lucky- at least it doesn't feel like torture going to work most of the times.

And it's kind of the same with church. If you are one of those people who hate going to church but still go anyway, did you ever stop to think why? Or if you hate reading the Bible, but you know you should read it... Why should you read it anyway?

I'm not saying you shouldn't... But I wish I had asked myself those questions sooner in life, so that I could at least see that I was not really Christian in my heart then. I was only a Christian on the surface. Now that I really love God, I read the Bible because I think it's the best thing ever and I take what God says very seriously. I go to church not only because it is God's commandment but also because I love being around other Christians and sharing my love for Christ.

In the same way, I don't just run track because I have to do it, but also because I love it too.

I hope that may be true in time for everything else in my life- especially career-wise. It is would be a great blessing.