Jane Peng

Yesterday night I tried to run 3K right after I got home from work, but it was not my day. Maybe I was too tired from work, or that I was starving, but I just couldn’t do it. So I ran for only 1.5 K and then went home for dinner, feeling shitty that I didn’t meet my easy goal. And I felt even shittier after dinner because both my knees were burning after merely 2K of jogging.

I kept thinking where I went wrong and how I can improve. And eventually I gave up and went to bed.

So I came to a conclusion this morning that it was just not my day last night. Some days are just not meant for running and yesterday was probably one of those days. Not only was it gloomy outside and felt as if it’s about to downpour any minute, I was super exhausted from work. I guess the better time to do my runs would be an hour after dinner around 7, instead of right after work. I noticed I had trouble breathing big breaths too as the air was full of exhaust right after work when everyone’s driving home. So I’m not discouraged, and I will keep training with that half marathon goal in mind!

I’ve been doing a lot of research online to find a good training schedule and good techniques to train to run so I won’t get injured. There’s SO many routines and workouts and advices online for running, I don’t even know where to start! Now I’m worrying about endurance, speed, distance, balance, abs, core, joints, and all those stuff AND learning to juggle that with having fun (which is key) while I run. But I can do this. J

And I will do this! So I’m going to take it slow and try everything and see what works best for me. I think I def need to start with building a good run base and getting back into shape first before I aim for the tough long distances and rigorous interval training.

And to keep my going through all of this is of course Jane Peng. She is truly inspiration and an amazing woman! I’ve been reading up on her lately and she’s done so many fantastic things in life that are motivating me everyday!

First her education has taken her from China (Guangshou), Singapore, Scotland, England (Oxford) and Upstate New York (Cornell University). She knows how to speak a lot of different languages, and she wants to pick up French and Japanese again (as if it’s so easy to just pick up!). And she’s only graduated last year (2009) and already has a good full time job with Pan Pacific Hotels as a business analyst (a quite renown international organization!).

But above that, her passion for life is truly magnificent! She has co-ordinated and completed a 1,000 km bicycle expedition along the Nile River in 2006 during her first year in university. Her desire to fully experience and understand the world has brought her to all seven continents! This includes at first a solo trip to Argentina, which eventually led her to the southernmost tip of the Earth (Antarctica) for a photographic trip. Not only was she a top ten finalist for the International Photographic competition organised by National Geographic in Australia last year (2009), but her work has also been selected for exhibitions by Singapore’s National Arts Council. This year she has trained and completed her Shitoryu Karate Black Belt Shodan (Dan 1).

Additionally, Jane has a long-standing commitment to humanitarian causes. She dreams of a better future, a world where no child would have to dig through a heap of garbage to seek the next meal, where no one wakes up in the middle of the night because of rain that’s leaking through the corrugated roof of a makeshift home, a future where tears come from laughing too hard and not from too much pain, a future where children can stay off the streets and instead go to school to learn about the wonders of the world and how, in turn, they will play a part of shaping it one day.

She raised funds for breast cancer research as part of her Nile River cycling expedition. She has also built brick houses in Nicaragua for underprivileged communities. And quite recently, without ever running even 10K, she has signed up to do the Racing the Planet Sahara Desert Race (250 km in 7 days) to fundraise for WorldVision Microfinance. The Sahara Desert race is a 250 foot race across the Sahara Desert. It’s listed as one of the top ten endurance challenge race in the world. Competitors will navigate the sand dunes and plains of the Sahara in Egypt while carrying all that they need on their backs! This includes 7 days of food supply, sleeping bag, clothes and survival tools!

Jane is so inspiring. She is a firm believer in the tenacity of the human spirit and has always striven to challenge the status quo, while aspiring to greater heights in all that she does.

I think the most amazing thing about her is that every step of the way that she trained to run the Sahara, she took in all the pain and still smiled and did it with so much energy! She finished each leg of the race smiling and enjoying it! She has so much passion for life and it’s amazing!  

I’m learning SO much from her every day. Jane, you make every step of the pain worthwhile!

So yeah, yesterday I was not quite at the top of my game, but today I will grind the day out and get back to the top.

“The pain tells you that you’re alive, that you’re putting in effort and stretching your limits.”