My Background
I never had any ambitions of becoming a footballer or a professional athlete. As such, ever since a young kid I never had the determination to do physical exercise and sports with a greater goal in mind. Instead, I would just do it to have an extra thing to keep me busy beyond school.
So, I bounced around many different sports, namely swimming, football and tennis. In all of them I recognised their value in teaching me ethics and morals beyond just physical skills, but I was never able to consistently stick to any of them and make an impact with them on my personal life.
To make things worse, my choice of professional job as a software engineer is very prone to a sedentary lifestyle, which as we all know can carry a lot of health risks.
Another aspect that has also made me less active is a mental hurdle related to me tearing my ACL, on a casual Sunday friendly football match. The recovery went well but it was tough.
More than any physical damages, it is the mental aspect that has made me self-aware on any physical exercise that I do, because it brings me to a state in which I’m afraid of tearing my ACL again.
Running
Last September, a couple of friends challenged me to go for one run. I immediately got hooked and felt awesome when finishing it.
Beyond that, at Mercedes-Benz.io a culture of openness and sharing is fostered, leading to finding common interests and hobbies between co-workers, and thanks to that I found that a lot of them love to run. With this, I had the kick start I needed.
This led me to define the first goal to routinely run as a way to counterbalance the drawbacks of being at my desk the whole day. It was easier than I thought, because after the first three runs I felt great when running and bad whenever I was not able to go running at least once a week. More than a routine, it became an escape of everything: work stress, family issues or personal frustrations.
That one hour of running was a way to relax and clear my mind. It became very important for me to go running.
After a while, I decided to join a running club with some co-workers, which in hindsight was a great idea. Since it gave me a goal to push myself for, something that while growing up doing sports I never had. Moreover, seeing my colleagues going on runs and pushing themselves to achieve their own goals gave me an extra motivation and morale boost to keep running. Quickly enough, I set another goal for myself to go on an official race with them, it was time to challenge myself.
On November, I did my first official race. It was a hard race, the course had one big elevation on the 7th km that almost made me quit, but thanks to my buddy Pedro Gomes, I was able to pull trough.
I ended up achieving my internal goals of completing the 10 kilometers race under 60 minutes, while going through some adversities like the weather and the fact that my phone armband ripped through at the 2nd kilometer. So, I ran with my phone on my hand for 8 kilometers. In the end, I had a great time!
The course was awesome: we passed the Aqueduto das Águas Livres which has a great view of the city. It was an amazing feeling to be able to achieve this and to be able to make it with my colleagues as well.
Final Notes
I would have never set these kinds of goals or even sign up for a race on my own. My friends and colleagues made me leave my comfort zone and made me look for a better lifestyle for myself.
Now, after some hiatus due to the Covid-19 outbreak, my goal is to do more kilometers this year, more races (if possible!) and most importantly just try to have a healthier lifestyle.
I have to thank my friends for the initial push and also to my colleagues because seeing them run week in and week out has kept me running.
My final appeal to other Software Engineers or any other professionals that have a job requiring you to work sitting down for long periods of time: get yourself a workout or sport that helps you become less sedentary, trust me it will make wonders for your physical and mental health.
Thank you for reading! 😃
GitHub: https://github.com/gonmmarques
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/goncalommarques/
Original post on Medium.