This post I’ve been wanting to write for years. Now I finally did. A reflection on marathon running and its benefits for learning Chinese.
Why on earth would you run a marathon?
Most normal people don’t even consider running a marathon. Marathons are long and tedious for most human beings. If people can’t run 10 km, why would they attempt 42 km, right?
I started running at a young age, because running relaxed me. Being alone with my thoughts and listening to music (while running) always were a mental health requirement for me. It began with doing laps in the town where I grew up. When this small town of about 10,000 inhabitants became too small, I also ran in the Frisian countryside, down fields and meadows. This picture gives a good impression:
When I had done that long enough and – some years later – had become a university student in the German city of Regensburg, I decided to get more serious and participate in a marathon. I knew long-distance running suited me, and now I wanted to do something bigger. So I got books from the library (I almost feel old writing that) and started reading up on it.
Then I made a training schedule, sent it to my most athletic uncle for approval and signed up for the Regensburg marathon. That was in January (2013), and the marathon was at the beginning of May, so I still had four months.
The reason people want to run the marathon is because the challenge, physically, is you. The distance – how you get there – is all up to you and how hard you work. That’s why people want to do it.
Preparation
Others might have put it more eloquently, but you prepare for a marathon by running regularly and working your way up to the distance of 42 kilometers (and a bit). You create a training schedule, which is also a sort of commitment to yourself regarding when and how long you will run. Such a schedule must remain humane, not only to keep it enjoyable for yourself but also to prevent injuries.
I remember two types of training: a shorter, intensive training at a relatively high speed and the longer endurance training where you really work towards the marathon distance. You don’t necessarily have to run 42 kilometers. 35 kilometers do the trick or so I read. The remaining 7 kilometers are said to be run ‘on character.’
You might also have a target time in mind. Mine was 3 hours and 30 minutes.
Obstacles
Nothing is as easy as it seems, and training for a marathon doesn’t always go smoothly. Looking back at that winter, the biggest difficulty was finding the motivation to meet my training goals consistently. Sometimes I simply didn’t feel like running in the cold, wind, and rain. Sometimes I had muscle pain, and running didn’t feel good. And during my student days, there were plenty of other obligations and distractions. Why did I need to add a marathon to the mix?
What helped me was a deeply felt motivation, a kind of mission. I wanted to prove something to myself (and others). That big goal kept me focused.
Keeping up the moral
‘Keeping a positive mindset’ always sounded like some worn-out phrase from a management textbook to me, although it makes a lot of sense. I come from the northern parts of the Netherlands and would go as far as to say that the positive mindset doesn’t come natural to me. I wasn’t raised with it and – to the extent that I’m keeping a positive mindset today – I had to acquire it.
However, what helped me the most when things were tough was simply carrying on, regardless. You could call it stoic. It’s about finding a way to ignore all the opposing forces, put on your running shoes and hit the road.
Another cliché is celebrating small successes. I didn’t practice it so much back then and should have done it more frequently, because rewarding yourself for the hard effort is reassuring. You’re allowed to pat yourself on the back from time to time.
Intermediate goals
Setting intermediate goals is very important. What is a realistic intermediate goal for a marathon? That would be the half marathon. It’s a shorter distance with a competitive component that gives you a feeling what it’s like. But it’s also a reality check that will tell you whether you’re on track or not. You measure yourself against others. In the spirit of the competition, you have the chance to surpass yourself. And at the end, you can enjoy the achievement for a moment.
Marathon running & learning Chinese
There’s no direct connection between marathon running and learning the Chinese language, but there are some similarities. Both are very challenging tasks, big goals that you can’t achieve in a few days or weeks. You need to make a plan and break down the big goal into smaller parts. For the marathon, you create a training schedule with different types of training, duration, intensity, and rest days. You have to consider how much time you have to reach your goal. ‘Time management’, to use an ugly word. If you approach learning a complex language like Chinese seriously, you will definitely benefit from realistic long-term planning and setting intermediate goals.
You can never be sure. That’s what makes the marathon both fearsome and fascinating. The deeper you go into the unknown, the more uncertain you become. But then you finish. And you wonder later, ‘How did I do that?’ This question compels you to keep making the journey from the usual to the magical.
Joe Henderson, running writer
Patience and persistence
Long-distance runners probably aren’t better at learning Chinese, but they do have the endurance needed for long-term goals like mastering the Chinese language. It has to do with patience (= not expecting immediate results) and persistence (= not giving up).
Patience is extremely important. No one is fit enough to run a marathon in a few days. No one will be able to speak fluent Chinese within a few weeks. So you need to be patient and account for setbacks. Sometimes it takes longer than expected, sometimes it’s harder than hoped. But patience is a virtue. Stay tempered in your expectations and keep going, even when the results aren’t immediately visible.
Speaking of persistence: you can have a bad day occasionally, and sometimes you really don’t have time, but keep doing what you set out to do. Think about your big goal. Your dream, your mission. Other people don’t necessarily need to understand it, as long as you know how important it is to you.
Self-confidence
What surprised me is that you gain a lot of self-confidence just by making the plan, gradually executing it, and seeing the results. You realize you can achieve things if you just keep at it. Something that initially seems impossible or at least extremely difficult can be accomplished through planning and perseverance. These are skills you can reuse for many challenging tasks, including learning Chinese. Think of setting a goal, outlining a plan to get there, and acquiring the necessary resources. Whether it’s taking lessons or subscribing to useful apps that fit your learning goals.
The nice thing about running is that the goals you set are very clear. For example, you want to run those 25 kilometers on Sunday. If you achieve that, you can check it off. It gives you a very good feeling. You know what you’re working towards. You can do the same with learning Chinese. You want to listen for a total of 4 hours this week, read for two hours, read aloud for 30 minutes, write one text, etc. You shouldn’t overdo it and keep it achievable for yourself of course, but I guarantee you that you’ll feel better and more confident about your capabilities if you make a plan with clear goals.
The person who starts the race is not the same person who finishes the race.
-Marathon spectator sign
Combining marathon training & Chinese learning
Running a marathon and learning Chinese don’t exclude each other; on the contrary. If I were training for a marathon (or a half marathon) today, I would start by filling my playlist with interesting Chinese podcasts. If I were running alone in the forest, I would repeat sentences aloud. You want to use that training time as much as possible to get Chinese into your brain. Training becomes immersion. If you keep a running diary, you can also do that in Chinese or at least include Chinese notes, such as what you listened to or what thoughts you had during your run.
First marathon
I managed to avoid starting too fast and find my own pace. Those 42 kilometers are long, and they were unknown territory. In my training, I had done 35 kilometers at the most. The course went through the city center of Regensburg and along the Danube River.
I held up well for the first thirty kilometers. After that, I found I couldn’t eat enough to stave off hunger. Apples and energy bars barely helped. I drank lemonade for the extra sugars at every checkpoint, but I felt pretty much empty. From kilometer 35 onward, I was in real pain. My muscles were extremely sore and cramped, feeling like steel cables, but I still had to keep going. It was agonizing to run on an empty stomach with cramped legs. The pace was long gone. Those last streets seemed endlessly long. I didn’t register much of the world around me anymore.
Eventually, I finished in 3:41. Not exactly the dream time, but certainly not a bad performance. Afterward, I devoured several plates of macaroni and finally cycled home, completely exhausted. I was sick for several days afterward. I remember renewing my passport in Munich the next day, and that without help, I could barely walk up stairs, because my legs hurt so much.
But I had done it and the memory of the whole experience makes me happy until this day.
I hope you enjoyed this post about marathon running and Chinese learning. Feel free to drop a comment down below.
