When Annie Runs – The faster she goes, the easier it becomes

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True to the saying that you should never underestimate the power of women because you don’t know what they’re capable of. When a woman runs, she wins. Running Malaysia tried to keep up with Annie, an ASICS runner, speed as we got the chance to speak to the girl who runs like a wind.

She’s no stranger to local and international running scene. She’s a warrior in her own battlefield. More than anything, she only wants to prove one thing, “I want to prove that elephants can run” Yee Pei Ni or Annie to her family and friends said while laughing. With these compelling phrase, Annie started her story.

UNLEASHING THE POWER RUNNER WITHIN

Annie was neither natural born runner nor was active in sports since young. Being inactive in sports resulted for her to gain weight, that’s why her family and friends tend to call her elephant, it became her nickname for the time being. Passive in sports and a total bookworm, that’s how Annie described herself. She was much focused in her tuition classes then that outdoor activities don’t fascinate her at all. But it was her mom who pushed her to run, it only started as an alternative to her yoga classes. Not knowingly that this kind of substitute will open a door of opportunities in sporting sphere.

The common practice in joining races is you should do it gradually, like starting with 5km then advanced to 10km or there be others who started strong with 10km as their first. After participating in several races you then came your first ever 21km. To some, it takes years before they can move into full marathon while others took just months. For this 26 year-old runner, she doesn’t belong to that group. Her first race is a crazy full 42k marathon in 2009. Not because she thinks she’s already capable of this distance but because she’s not aware that she signed up for a full marathon.

“I was 18 that year. I saw that the qualification age for participating in the marathon is 18 and above. I didn’t scroll down to see other categories, actually, I didn’t know there are other categories. *laughs* without hesitation, I just registered online for the women open category. I didn’t know then how far 42km really was.” She laughs after remembering her first race mishaps. Without proper training, not knowing the distance and wearing an old Bata running shoes—as she has the notion that you should wear old shoes during a race instead of a new one—this determined the runner successfully completed the race within 5 hours and 11 minutes.

I have a fair amount of discipline and determination in me which i believe the reason i can pursue my running career despite my busy schedule.