From Novice to Champion: Inspiring Journey of Zhang Jiaer in the Running World

2023-06-30 05:11:57

[Interview with Tilu]Although she started late, it does not mean that she cannot achieve her goal. In this year’s “25th Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon”, Zhang Jiaer, who won the championship in the half-marathon women’s advanced group, has only been running for more than 3 years, but she has successfully entered the podium. She was fascinated by the running world from the moment she stepped into it, and found infinite possibilities.

When Zhang Jiaer (Anthea) was in college, she would occasionally “check in” with her friends wearing running shoes, and she had also participated in a few slag horses to join in the fun. With this little running experience, she went to Taiwan with the students to participate in the long-distance running relay race in 2019. She was responsible for taking care of the students with the team and became one of the runners. student progress. At that time, the students said that they would come to Taiwan to compete once more in half a year, and Anthea also secretly made up her mind at that moment: “Next time, I can’t be the one that drags others down!” As a result, she successfully completed the competition for the second time, and these two trips to Taiwan made it even more impressive. Anthea loves running.

She lives in Tseung Kwan O and often runs around the beach to witness the completion of the Cross Bay Bridge. Running relaxes her physically and mentally: “Running is your own time, to organize your thoughts, and sometimes you will suddenly think regarding something during the run.”

At the beginning, Anthea ran as she wanted, “Run as hard as you can every day, run as fast as you like, and slow down when you feel tired.” But later, she ran a lot, and the intensity was high, but she didn’t relax properly. As a result, her tibia fractured her feet and she was forced to stop. She used to think that it was too late to start running in the four-character head: “At my age, I am prone to osteoporosis, and my metabolism starts to slow down once more.” But when she saw other people running, she wanted to continue her love of running. love. Afterwards, following sports and physical therapy, Anthea began to formally learn to run with his coach in 2021, trying to avoid further injuries, and set himself the goal of participating in the six major marathons and reaching 3:30 in the whole marathon. She said that following learning to run, the knowledge of running was subverted by the coach: “The coach has changed my views a lot. The first change is that the amount of training can be small, and the strength should be reserved for the main course. And you must know how to control yourself, how much you run. Delegates will run fast.”

With the assistance of sports therapist Mai Jiarong (right), Anthea overcame the injury and continued to run (picture: provided by the interviewee) Anthea will learn to run with coach Wang Rongzhu (right) from 2021 (picture: provided by the interviewee) )

After one year of training, the coach signed up for Anthea to participate in the track and field competition and challenged 10,000 meters. She said that her first reaction was that she was afraid that she would not be able to bear it: “Because my speed is not high and the number of participants is not large, I have a hunch that I will be “tailed”. The most fearful thing is that I have to “go ashore” if I can’t finish the run. I don’t want to compete with others, but my perseverance must not be inferior to others, so I don’t want to “go ashore”.” Later, the coach made her understand that 5000 meters and 10000 meters are the best way to run a full marathon In the end, she also finished her first track and field competition in third place. She was inspired and marveled at the vastness of the running world: “Learning really has no age. It turns out that I only learned to run when I started with the word “4”, not just running for health. , there are still many things to try.”

Learning to run also taught Xiao Anthea not to be impatient. The Standard Chartered Marathon is a key event for her and her coach every year. The 25th Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon at the beginning of this year increased the prize money for local female runners who completed the whole marathon within 3 hours and 30 minutes from $1,000 to $10,000. She also wanted to try Trying to become “Miss Super Daughter”, but was persuaded by the coach: “I feel confident that I can become Miss Super Daughter, but the coach reminded me that the plan at that time was not to prepare for the whole marathon. More time to rest will also increase the risk of injury.” Anthea finally followed the coach’s advice and proceeded step by step. According to the plan, she will not be in a full marathon until next year at the earliest, so she is not in a hurry: “Running often reminds myself to slow down. Slow down, know how to feel your body and rest, it doesn’t have to be crazy training.”

After following the coach, Anthea has participated in the Marsh Marathon twice. Unlike the mentality of joining in the fun in the past, these two times he participated with goals. In 2021, I ran the half-marathon for 1 hour and 35 minutes with a relaxed mind. This year, I was extremely nervous. I didn’t sleep well before the race and had mild diarrhea. In addition, the humidity on the day of the race was as high as 100%. Hope, even thought of giving up the game. However, thinking of the support of her coach and her husband, she finally insisted on completing the event, and unexpectedly became the first place in the women’s half-marathon advanced group with a personal best time of 1 hour, 31 minutes and 28 seconds. Although she failed to meet her target time of 1 hour and 30 minutes, she has said bluntly that she was pleasantly surprised: “I didn’t expect to win the prize at all. Standing in the middle of the podium is the fulfillment of the dream of many runners.”

This year’s “25th Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon” Anthea won the half-marathon women’s advanced group championship (Photo: provided by the interviewee)

Although Zama did not reach the target time this year, Anthea was not discouraged and flew out of Hong Kong to participate in the Uozu Marathon in Japan in April. When he encountered the first “hitting the wall” in his life, he still managed to run 1 hour, 30 minutes and 50 seconds. Although there is still a gap of 50 seconds from the target time of this season, Anthea does not feel lost, and believes that every time he accumulates experience, he is a little bit closer to the target.

Talking regarding the future, Anthea hopes to keep improving: “Not only in terms of time, but also in terms of mentality and emotion.” Zama’s experience has also inspired Anthea. She began to search for registrations for different advanced group track and field competitions overseas. Although the procedures and required documents are complicated, she has successfully signed up to participate in the advanced group track and field event held in British Columbia, Canada this summer. She hopes to accumulate experience and encourage runners of her own age to jump out of the “frame” of age I hope that one day in the future, not only the runners who have achieved good results in the ZMA senior group will be able to represent Hong Kong in competitions, but also the outstanding runners in the advanced group will also be able to get this opportunity. .”

Photo and text: He Ziyuan

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