conjoined twins we talk about love through running

Editor's Note:Theycrossed the street under the streetlights together; weaved through the crowds on the school playground together; stretched and warmed up under the morning sun together; did planks at home together; and participated in marathons and triathlons together. They fell in love through running. The male protagonist of the story@Jason-yip, one of the city pacers in March, and the female protagonist of the story @Wind Blows and Can't Knock Down.

We were college classmates. At that time, she was on the school's standard dance team, and I was on the school's aerobics team. The school alternated between hosting aerobics and street dance competitions and standard dance competitions every other year. We were both shining stars on stage. The school wasn't big, so we trained in the same room, and gradually, we got to know and love each other.

Looking through Codoon's exercise records, they are actually records of our running love story. Almost every run we did was at the same time. We went to Olympic Forest Park together, crossed the street under the streetlights together, weaved through the crowds on the school playground together, and stretched and warmed up under the morning sun together. Even at home, we had our own yoga mats side by side, stretching and doing planks together.

The first time we ran together was on November 2, 2014, at the Shanghai Marathon. Two complete novices with no training at all, we foolishly signed up, relying on our dance club experience in school as our athletic foundation. Not satisfied with the mini marathon, we ambitiously signed up for the 10 kilometers. The result was that she got on the sweep bus at the 5-kilometer mark, and I begged the volunteers for a massage three times at the rest area.

At that moment, we felt more of the thrill of running together and didn't realize the importance of training. After that, running became popular nationwide. In July 2015, on another impulse, we signed up for a triathlon. Again, two novices, we even dragged another friend who was even less experienced to the Pinggu District Triathlon. In the end, I finished the race first and ran back to cheer her on. When she crossed the finish line, I felt that our lives had become more exciting because of running. Afterward, taking group photos and sharing them became a theme, and we celebrated with a big meal.



Love should be taken seriously, and so should running. During the triathlon, we saw many serious runners, including a 75-year-old man who ran briskly past us. This made us determined to seriously participate in a race, so we signed up for the half marathon in Wuqing District, Tianjin, on September 13, 2015.



For us, who had only haphazardly participated in a 10-kilometer run once, the 21-kilometer half marathon was a huge challenge. So, every few days, we ran at a nearby school, feeling like we were back in our college days when we walked around the playground at night. Looking back now, we were really fearless like newborn calves. We only ran seven times, with the longest run being just 8.21 kilometers, before standing at the starting line of the Tianjin Marathon. On September 13, 2015, with the belief of finishing the race, we excitedly joined the crowd. At that time, we didn't understand anything about pace, cadence, or heart rate. After learning from the experience of sprinting and stopping abruptly at the Shanghai Marathon, we slowly followed a few older runners and eventually finished the race, feeling like we had entered a new realm of life.

Some say that once you complete a half marathon, you've entered the world of marathons. We held the medals from the organizing committee, posing for various photos to show off. At that moment, despite the exhaustion, we felt we had truly fallen in love with running. In fact, unscientific running left me exhausted, and I was completely limp on the high-speed train back to Beijing.

In 2016, with a new beginning, we got married and went on our honeymoon. In the beautiful scenery of Saipan, we ran together; in the cold winter, we sweated together in the gym; in the spring, we started running again on the track and in Olympic Forest Park. This year, we began scientific training, avoiding recklessness, studying cadence, gait, and stride length, and improving our cardiovascular capacity through MAF180 and interval training.

Love is like a marathon. Getting to know each other (accidentally stumbling into this sport), the passion that accompanied us through the initial stages of our relationship (first run at the Shanghai Marathon), not understanding love and having occasional minor conflicts (not understanding running, experiencing minor ankle and knee pain), gradually stabilizing, entering the hall of marriage, and facing a longer life ahead (starting scientific training, focusing on running form, data comparison, heart rate adjustment, and improving maximum oxygen uptake, preparing for longer marathons). We will continue to run, just as we will continue to cherish our love.

(This article is an original work by a Codoon user. For reprints, please contact the Codoon editor.)