Running has taught me to believe in my own ability and unique ideas. It used to be that I was so easily talked out of and compromised on what I knew to be true in my heart. My running coach tells me, ‘that you have to believe in your own strength to push yourself more. When you stop it means that you do not believe that you can move forward. That is the time to dig into yourself and demand the life you want not the life you have. You must look at your target and make steps everyday toward it’.

I was sweating in a shower of myself and wanted to scream up a steep hill. He says, kindly ‘don’t stop’. He tries to grab my hand to pull me up. I moved his hand and said, ‘no no, I must do this myself’. It was like moving in slow motion up this James Bond french riviera cliff in Bali. Whenever I tried to doubt or stop, I slowed down but never stopped. He runs ahead as I cover the coast by the beach and waits by my motorbike. When I reached him by the bike, he points to the first hill and tells me to go again alone. He sat and waited as I made my way around the bends.

The second time was tough, but not as tough as the first time. I pushed and pushed and just before the top, I couldn’t push anymore. I turned back and forth twice deciding whether to make it to the top. Then I said, ‘today was good enough but I will be back’. I picked up the pace back down the hill to find my coach on the phone. I told him that I was 10% short of the top of the hill. He asks, ‘are you sweating?’ I nodded with my face dripping. Then he asks, ‘did you run until you couldn’t run anymore’? I said ‘yes’. Then he smiles and says, ‘that is what we call training’. We finished the morning with a coconut and chicken porridge.

This is the bottom of the hill.

So early in the morning that the only people on the beach were some builders. It felt like a dream, no wait it felt like hell. It looked like a dream.

This is the start line and where we kept the bike under a palm tree.