Marathon Effort
Running is about much more than clocking up the treadmill miles for Member Angela Yuen.
I have a desk job. I sit all day. But as someone who likes to keep moving, I get a bit stir-crazy.
To burn off energy, I exercise religiously in the mornings. I do two hours every day, seven days a week.
The Nihonbashi Club has been great for that. Since I joined last summer, I’ve spent a lot of time on the treadmills in the Fitness Center. Treadmills, in fact, are how I got into long-distance running.
In primary and high school, I was always on the athletics team. But I was a short-distance sprinter. I didn’t start running long distances until I was in my 30s, when my husband was studying for the New York bar exam. That was 15 years ago.
I had a lot of time on my hands on the weekends, so I started to push myself on the treadmill at the gym. At first, my goal was five minutes. I bumped that up to 10 and then to 15. When I started doing 30 minutes, I went outside to run around the Imperial Palace. That’s about a half-hour, 5-kilometer run. And, as most runners will tell you, it’s a bit addictive when you keep stretching for the next goal.
I like to push myself beyond the boundary a tiny bit each time. Once I took things outside, I always just went for that little extra, to the next landmark, another kilometer or to round off the number. Before I knew it, I was reaching marathon distances.
I entered my first marathon in 2008: the Gold Coast Marathon, a 42-kilometer run held in Queensland on the first Sunday of July each year. Since then, I’ve done more than 10 road and trail marathons. Most recent was the 2021 Nagoya Women’s Marathon, the largest women-only marathon in the world.
But my morning exercise routine isn’t just about training for marathons. It is also my time, my space. I use it to think and to listen to music, audiobooks and podcasts. Sometimes I solve a problem. After brainstorming, I might come home and write down a long list of things to do.
The change of environment really helps with creativity. You’re not in your stuffy work clothes. Whether you’re on the treadmill at the Club or out in the fresh air with open sky, a different part of your mind is activated. It really is a headspace time for me. I find it mentally and physically very productive.
It’s rewarding in other ways as well. I’ve inspired a lot of my teammates at work to take up running. And on International Women’s Day, my little girl, who is 10, wrote me a note: “Mommy, I admire you because you run every day.” I had never thought about seeing myself through her eyes. I was touched.
As told to INTOUCH’s C Bryan Jones.
Top image of Angela Yuen: Kayo Yamawaki
November 2023
