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yangkun
@yangkun
I tried to run in 2024, but for whatever reason, whenever I tried to get out there, it felt like the right gear just didn’t turn on. I would get dressed,
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yangkun
@yangkun
stretch, put on music and the Nike run app, and start running, but after a minute or two, I would just lose focus, stop and after a few seconds pacing around,
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yangkun
@yangkun
walk or jog back home. As mentioned in the post above, anxiety stemming from a lack of time was one issue but not the sole issue. As someone who has run the NY marathon and a few other races in my day,
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yangkun
@yangkun
it’s been pretty shameful and I haven’t talked about this issue publicly to anyone outside of my parents and wife to this day.
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yangkun
@yangkun
The one time I was able to run without stopping was a few months ago in Redondo Beach, CA with my dad, when he rented a bike from the hotel we were staying at and I ran along side him along the beach—something that we’ve done since I was in the 5th grade,
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yangkun
@yangkun
running the “Jogathon” at my elementary school/middle school, St. Luke’s. The Jogathon was a fundraising event where students would run around the school block, raising money for charity by pledging the numbers they would run with family and friends donating for
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yangkun
@yangkun
every mile they ran. My dad would make up songs as he rode along side me, giving me mile counts and cheering me on. It’s one of my favorite memories from growing up.
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yangkun
@yangkun
So here I am, the morning of January 8th, 2025. With new resolutions in mind, I start to run up the hill next to my house but after I got up to the top, I stopped. It was the same feeling as 2024. I paced around for a
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yangkun
@yangkun
bit before walking down the hill, feeling defeated. Head down, I walked back into my house, took off my shoes, sat at my desk and asked myself, “why do I want to run?”
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yangkun
@yangkun
Back in college and when I ran the New York Marathon, I ran to compete—not at a professional level, but with my own times and the clock. I didn’t run as a way to consciously make a lifestyle choice for my
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yangkun
@yangkun
own sake—it was in service of some form of competition or at times, to get in shape to get girls (not proud, just true). During COVID, I used running as a way to meet up with friends, scheduling long runs to their houses and waving from a safe distance,
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yangkun
@yangkun
each run getting progressively farther, going up to 22 miles. Most recently the running club I started for Senspace was not about me getting faster, but instead was about being excited about my friends and colleagues getting more active and into running.
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yangkun
@yangkun
But happily married and though I might consider it some day, running a race is not on in my purview and I wasn’t going to be able to get a group of friends together on a moments notice to meet me for a run.
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yangkun
@yangkun
I instead I picked up my basketball. I was so focused on running, because I felt like that’s what I should do and had forgotten that basketball was something I’d also lost in 2024. My usual run dissipated towards the
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yangkun
@yangkun
end of 2023 and despite waking up every morning and watching the Knicks game (sometimes on the monitor in front of me, while working, I got on the court less than 10 times in 2024.
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yangkun
@yangkun
I don’t need a reason to play basketball. Growing up at The Cage in New York City, basketball runs in my blood and there’s a little tingle down my spine and slight anxiety that I get whenever I pass a basketball court but am too busy/not dressed to play.
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yangkun
@yangkun
When I got to Yoyogi Park in Tokyo, where the local basketball court is near my house, one other person was shooting around so I went to shoot with them. It was still early in the morning, around 7:30AM,
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yangkun
@yangkun
and no one was playing half or full court games. After 30 minutes or so of shooting, I did something that I’d never done in Japan in the 8 years I’ve lived here: I asked someone to play 1 on 1 that I didn’t know. Growing up in
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yangkun
@yangkun
The person expected and introduced themselves as “Yujin.” We want on to play one game to 11, which I won (woohoo!) after which Yujin invited me to play again in the mornings when his other friends come to play.
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