Blog Post #5

Michael Dang
Hon101

Having Heart

The pain was almost unbearable. My stomach felt like it was being squeezed uncontrollably as if someone was constantly ramming it from all sides. It was a hot Saturday afternoon during my Cross-Country race, and I was struggling to take in air. The longer the distance I ran, the more the pain intensified. My steps felt laborious, and I felt many runners rushing by me with ease. The sight of their backs seemed to be taunting me. I couldn’t keep up. It was a pain I knew that was all too similar — sidepain. Sidepain was my Achilles’ heel. I could only go as far as it allowed me to go. For the whole season, my races were filled with regret since I knew I could do better. But the pain was on and off. On some days, the pain was nonexistent and I felt like I could run a marathon. However on other days, I could barely manage three miles as the pain was excruciating. The inconsistency haunted me for weeks. 

As the frustration grew, I longed for a solution to get rid of the pain. I talked to my trainers and coaches. They asked me many details about my lifestyle: what I eat, how I prepare for practice, how many hours of sleep I get, and many other questions. Eventually, they found the solution. It was my diet. My diet was the reason why the pain was so erratic. On some days, I would eat food that wouldn’t digest so well with my stomach — hence the sidepain. It caused my stomach to build up gas to make it feel very uncomfortable. My diet was also very inconsistent the day before the race as I would eat a variety of different foods.

After doing some research and consulting one of my trainers, I found out that I needed to have a consistent diet the day before a race. I couldn’t eat anything my stomach wasn’t used to, and the food I ate had to be easy to digest. In fact, in the 2008 Olympics, Usain Bolt ate Chicken McNuggets from McDonalds everyday — even during his race days. The reason is that his stomach was familiar with these foods! So it worked for him even though it is an unconventional snack before a run! Through this thought process, I found pasta to be my main meal the day before a race, and a peanut butter sandwich with a glass of chocolate milk to be my morning snack before a race. Before I knew it, the sidepain ceased. I was able to run faster than I ever did before since there was no pain. I ended up placing in the top ten at my final race, and I felt so grateful and blessed. I thanked my trainers and coaches for the knowledge they gave me. I learned to never give up and to do everything with your heart.