I’ve been running 5 x 3 miles a week for the last four years. And let me tell you, the 5K and I are the perfect pair. We’re like Batman and Robin. Woody and Buzz Lightyear. Sonny and Cher. Penn and Teller. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. R2-D2 and C-3PO. Totally in sync.

I love the 5K for two reasons: first, I’m just too lazy to run longer distances; second, the 5K fits my lifestyle. You see, I used to run during my lunch break at work; I had to get to the gym, do my workout, shower, and come back to my desk all within an hour. The 5K was just the perfect distance for that.

But for the better half of 2015, I’ve been quite bored with the 5K. I stopped trying to improve my time months ago and mostly run to offset the free lunches I was getting at work.

2016 is the perfect time for a new running goal, and this year I want to love a new distance. They say that some runners increase their distance as they age and their legs can’t pump as fast as before. So if that’s true, and my gut seems to agree, then 2016 will be the year I get into the 10K, a healthy 6.2 miles.

The first race I ever ran was a 10K in my hometown called the Vancouver Sun Run. I signed up for it on a whim with my dad when I was 16. I didn’t do anything to prepare for it because I was too busy figuring out this thing called high school. On race day, I came in at something around 55 minutes but hurt for the entire last half of it. After the race, I bumped into my friend who was on my school’s varsity soccer team, he had done the race in 46 minutes. I was too embarrassed to tell him my time.

This year, I’m going to make 10K my favorite distance. Not only that, I’m going to run it in under 46 minutes. And I’m going to make it love me back.


All photos shot on my iPhone6.