SOBA's Own Christina Gee Completes 2013 LA Marathon

2013 Los Angeles Marathon

By Cristina Gee

Running and preparing for the LA Marathon has been the hardest thing I have done in my life. I was inspired to run the marathon last summer when friend of mine told me he had ran it twice before. I asked how he did it, and he told me "you have to want it". And I did want it. I wanted to run the marathon more than anything. The goal was never just to win the medal, or win bragging rights, but to prove to myself when I really put my mind to something, it is possible. I decided September 1st, 2012, I was going to run the 2013 LA Marathon, and nothing would stop me.

Training was very simple in late September and early October, when my marathon team had begun running. Our first practice was simply just 30 minutes of running around the gym (3 minutes of straight running and 1 minute of walking intervals). Then, we started running 3 miles to a store called Fries. After a few times to Fries and back, we started running four, and five miles. Every week, the mileage increased up until 13 miles! Before I knew it, when Christmas break came, we were running two miles more than the week before. The highest amount of miles we trained was 23. Those long runs were the hardest. They were on cold Saturday mornings and were agonizing at times. I never gave up though. I had the goal in mind, and reminded myself I could do it.

When the day of the marathon came, I wasn’t exactly nervous. I was actually pretty excited. Six months of training had finally passed, and that was the day to prove myself. My group of runners started running at 7:28am. When the race started, the atmosphere was very energetic and lively. It was fascinating to see how and why other people are running such a difficult race. I met one woman, who was running a marathon in honor of her father who is dealing with lung cancer. I met another man who was 75, who that day was running his 56th marathon! I thought those people were inspirational, and they gave me hope that I could finish the race too. Around mile 8, my knee had a sharp pain in it. My friend, who I was running with, made me stop at a medical tent. I stayed there about 3 minutes, witnessing a man who had just been told he could no longer run. I immediately left the tent after that. I could not bear even the thought, of not being able to finish. Near mile 20, I became exhausted, and the pain felt unbearable. It hurt to walk, talk, and think about the 6.2 miles I had left to accomplish. My friend began to lose hope, but talked him out of it, although I was just as tired as he was.

Then, 6.2 miles later, the finish line came. I bolted through the finish line, and my emotions took over. I’m not entirely sure if those tears came from exhaustion, pain, or just tears of happiness that I was finished. I had accomplished a marathon, and it was the best feeling in the world. I would never trade that experience for anything. There’s a quote by David McCullough, where he tells a group of students "Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view."