1. How It All Started

At the end of 2016, I had a lot of anxiety and anticipation for the new year ahead – mainly because 2017 was going to be my job market year. After years in my PhD program, I had long heard about the enormous stress of the academic job search. If I wasn’t in good physical shape, I might not hold up. So I needed to exercise regularly. Around that time, I happened to see Bill Gates recommend a book on his blog: Shoe Dog, the autobiography of Nike founder Phil Knight. One detail struck me – in his youth, Knight ran six miles (about 10 kilometers) every day. I thought: maybe I should start running too. Ten kilometers a day seemed like too much, so I’d aim for five. The morning after finishing the book, December 30th, I ran my first 5K. It took me about 35 minutes.

The sport I had always loved was basketball. I’d been playing since high school, one to three times a week. Like many kids, I had my Michael Jordan dreams. But the biggest problem with basketball was the injuries – sprained ankles and jammed fingers were routine. I didn’t mind much, but my wife and my mother worried constantly. Before I left for a game, my wife would always remind me, “Take it easy, don’t get hurt.” When I came back icing some new injury and hobbling to physical therapy, she’d say with a laugh, “You are too old to play basketball.” Basketball also ate up a lot of time – you had to coordinate with friends, find an open court, and even during the game, you’d spend stretches standing around watching someone else go one-on-one instead of actually exercising. I’d also tried swimming, since it’s low-impact on the joints, but I couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for it. All things considered, running suited me best.

2. Running at Least 5K Every Day

Many studies say the optimal time to exercise is between 4 and 6 PM, when your heart rate is elevated and your body can better handle the load. But for me, that was prime time for meetings, teaching, and debugging code – there was no way I could guarantee a daily run at that hour. So from the very start, I knew the only reliable window was right after waking up. Otherwise, I’d never stick with it.

Sticking with anything is hard. I remember when I first announced my grand plan to my wife in early 2017: run 5K every day. She gave me a look of pure contempt and said, “You – the guy who doesn’t move a muscle when the alarm goes off – you’re going to run every morning? You’ll last a week, tops.” There was no point arguing with that; I could only prove her wrong through action. I often thought of Muhammad Ali’s words: I will show you how great I am!

Another twist of fate helped me commit to running. In March 2017, I dislocated my left pinky finger during a basketball game – my first visit to an American emergency room. The injury meant no basketball for a long time. But I still needed to stay active, so I threw myself into running. I’ll admit that running is a monotonous sport; I needed to find ways to make it interesting. Maybe joining running groups and entering races would help. So I joined the Dallas Running Club. For $45 a year, you could participate in all eight of their annual races. The first race I signed up for was a 5K on April 1st. It wasn’t too difficult; I finished in 21 minutes and 30 seconds. Feeling proud, I posted a photo on WeChat. To my surprise, a fellow alumnus living in Dallas named Digger Chen commented and asked if I’d joined DASH. That was my first encounter with DASH.

3. DASH

It turned out Digger Chen was the founder of the DASH running group. With his enthusiastic introduction, I joined this Chinese running community in Dallas. What does DASH stand for? I’ve heard many versions, but the most entertaining one is: Dallas Asian So Hot.

In early April, I joined my first DASH group run. I remember Fengyun led the pace at 8 minutes per mile (about 5 minutes per kilometer). He and Thomas ran up front, chatting effortlessly. But I was struggling to keep up and completely ran out of gas at mile 11 – I later learned this is called “hitting the wall.” I told myself: just two more miles and you’ll have covered a half marathon distance. Keep going. So I gritted my teeth and finished 13.1 miles, completing my first-ever half marathon. My body was exhausted, but I felt incredible.

In the weeks that followed, I joined several more DASH Saturday group runs and met many impressive distance runners in the community. The person who left the deepest impression on me was Zhu Meifang. She told us she had been diagnosed with osteoporosis at age 58, seven years earlier. Her doctor recommended walking for exercise. But after a few weeks, she found plain walking too boring and gradually started running. When I learned she could run a 5K in under 22 minutes, I was stunned. She was more than a decade older than my mother, yet she ran a 5K as fast as I did! I was in complete awe. Later, with her permission, I sent the video of her interview to my mom, trying to tell her: it’s never too late to start exercising, even at 58!

4. Bobcat

DASH’s original leader, Digger, moved to Delaware for work, and a new leader named Zhou Yaohui took over. Known by his nickname Bobcat, the new leader was incredibly humble and kind. I remember on May 6th, he took me on a 10-mile run along the Shoreline trail. We chatted the whole way about our college experiences and running goals – it was relaxed and enjoyable.

On August 26th, Plano Pacers (another Dallas running group) organized a 3K x 3 relay race. Bobcat, a friend who went by “Flying Pig,” and I formed a team. Since our team already had a Bobcat (wildcat) and a Flying Pig, everyone joked that I needed an animal nickname too. I said, “Just call me the Fierce Dog.” And so the three “beasts” settled on DASH Beasts as our team name. Bobcat ran the first leg, Flying Pig the second, and I anchored. The first two handoffs went smoothly – both of them blazed through their legs ahead of schedule. I wanted to bring it home strong. But maybe I was too amped up – I nearly slipped when I grabbed the baton from Flying Pig. Luckily, the rest went smoothly. What I remember most vividly is nearing the finish line and hearing someone yelling at the top of his lungs: “Go Cheng Nie! You are the pride of DASH!” I looked over and it was Bobcat, phone in hand, filming me while running alongside and cheering. His energy was like a shot of adrenaline. I kicked into high gear for the final 200 meters. When results were posted, we were first in our age group. All three of us were thrilled.

On September 2nd, I ran with Bobcat again at Arbor Hill. No one could have known it would be the last time we’d run together. He had brought his son along. His little boy pedaled his bicycle up ahead while Bobcat jogged behind him. Watching that scene of father and son exercising together, I thought to myself: when my son grows up, I want to take him out to exercise like that.

Then, in mid-October, came the sudden news that Bobcat had passed away. My wife and I were devastated. The news hit everyone in the DASH family like a sledgehammer. The group organized donations and a memorial run. I was out of town for job interviews at the time and, to my regret, couldn’t join the memorial run. My wife and kids attended his funeral service on my behalf. After I returned to Dallas, I made a special trip to visit his gravesite. I placed flowers at his spot, sat there quietly for twenty minutes, scrolling through photos of us together on my phone, tears streaming down my face.

5. Ten Days Back in China

In early November, my mother called to say my grandmother probably wouldn’t make it through the day. My grandmother had been in poor health – at 85, severe dementia made her final days agonizing. As she lay dying in the hospital, my mother video-called me so I could see my grandmother one last time. Through the video, my mother urged me not to fly back, since I wouldn’t make it in time anyway. I agreed over the phone – then immediately booked a direct flight to Beijing, departing eight hours later.

My hometown is Gong’an County in Hubei Province, a small town on the banks of the Yangtze River. During those ten days back home for the funeral, I kept running every day. Running through the streets and alleys of my hometown, childhood memories were everywhere: here I got into a fight with one friend, there I played arcade games with another. One morning, I deliberately ran past my kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, and high school. When I checked my watch at the end, the total distance was only 5 kilometers. The town that seemed so vast when I was a child now felt so small.

6. My First Marathon

In late November, I returned to Dallas from China. Suddenly, I had an urge to run a full marathon (42 kilometers). The Dallas Marathon was on December 10th, and I asked in the DASH group chat about registration discounts. That’s when I learned I could run in place of the late Bobcat. He had run the 2016 Dallas Marathon and had already registered for 2017. If I ran on his behalf, I could give the finisher’s medal to his family as a keepsake. But since I’d never run a full marathon and my daily 5K training volume was far too low, several experienced runners in the group advised me to do the half marathon (21 kilometers) instead – after all, Bobcat wouldn’t want me injuring myself running in his name. I had run a half marathon at the Dallas Arboretum in September, finishing in 1:35:58. The day before the December 10th half marathon, I received the legendary shoe: Nike’s latest Vaporfly 4%. In my new shoes, I flew through the course. Since the timing chip had been removed by the organizers, I had no official time, but I clocked myself at about 1:30:30. I collected the finisher’s medal and had Kathleen deliver it to Bobcat’s family.

After the Dallas half marathon, I signed up for the New Year’s Double Marathon on December 31st, 2017. Ending the 365th day of the year with a marathon – that would be a fitting punctuation mark.

Typically, marathon training requires at least 10 weeks of preparation, with the final two weeks dedicated to tapering. But my marathon was only three weeks away. I hadn’t even started increasing my mileage before I needed to start tapering. Worried about whether I could finish 26 miles, I managed to squeeze in two longer runs with Eric and Woniu, both Boston Qualifiers (BQ runners who are fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon): one of 14 miles and one of 20 miles. Otherwise, my training was just the daily 5K. The day before the race, the forecast called for snow in Allen, the race location, with icy roads. The wind chill would be around minus 10 degrees Celsius. The last run of 2017 was going to be tough.

At 8:40 AM on December 31st, I took the first step of my first marathon with a nervous heart. Just 200 meters in, a young runner slipped and fell right in front of me. Clearly, I needed to watch out for ice and keep my stride short. The course had a distinctive layout: four laps of a 6.55-mile loop. For the first three laps, I was confident, buoyed by DASH friends cheering me on along the way. I naively believed I could maintain my pace and finish under 3 hours and 10 minutes. Throughout the race, I kept telling myself to focus and maintain proper running form to conserve energy. The first three laps went well, but the fourth fell apart. The slippery ground, the headwind, my frozen face – it all added up: I couldn’t run anymore. I tried squeezing out an energy gel, but it had frozen solid. When I finally got some into my mouth, it had the consistency of hard candy. I asked a volunteer for water, gulped it down, and discovered it was half ice. I was freezing.

With three miles to go, two voices started battling in my head. One said: walk for a bit, rest up, then you’ll run faster. The other said: keep running, slow down if you have to, but don’t walk! The second voice won. I slowed my pace and ran the final three miles. I crossed the finish line quietly. I wanted to find someone to take a commemorative photo, but I had no energy left. Besides, the cold had driven all the spectators away. I just wanted to get my clothes on and go home. Just then, a guy in his thirties also crossed the line, collapsed onto the grass, and started sobbing. It made me want to cry too. But my face was frozen into a state of paralysis – I couldn’t have cried even if I tried. My final time was 3:17:02, first place in the 30-34 age group.

7. Plans for 2018

My 2017 personal records:

• 5K: 20:00 (November 25th)
• Half marathon (21 km): 1:30:30 (December 10th)
• Full marathon (42 km): 3:17:02 (December 31st)

I ran all 365 days in 2017. Honestly, there were some days I shouldn’t have run – like when I had a cold and was coughing. But I felt like I’d already made the promise, so I had to see it through. Having accomplished 365 consecutive days in 2017, I no longer felt that pressure for 2018. My plan for 2018 was to follow the training program in Jack Daniels’ Running Formula and take at least one rest day per week.

That was my 2017 in running. I couldn’t wait for 2018!