Alumni of NY continues to build our relationship with the Goldfinger Track Club by hosting a AAPI Heritage and Mental Health Awareness Month community run May 28th at 9:00 AM. To get the conversation started we asked a couple of the Asian identifying runners on Goldfinger to talk about their cultural heritage and their mental health.
Q: Is there anything you wish people would know about your experience as an Asian person?
A: Every Asian person's life experience is a bit different. Although there are shared experiences, each person is still very unique in their own way with their own unique life experiences. I think this gets missed a lot, and society generally views Asian people as one homogeneous group.
Q: Is there anything that is top of mind when you think about your identity as a Asian person in the New York City run community?
A: I really want to inspire the next generation of Asian American runners. When I first joined the NYC running community, I noticed that there weren't a lot of people who looked like me. I didn't see many people of color at the races I went to. As I got better and faster at running, I saw fewer and fewer people of color. I really want to run in the local community and help guide, shape, and inspire other Asians/people of color so that they can see someone who looks like them run well.
I think part of my role as an Asian person in the NYC run community is also to help spread knowledge that's not online, but instead only exists in random running WeChat groups. This is because as an Asian person, running can look a little different. Shoe fitting can be different, since Asian feet are wider on average. I really like Saucony since their shoes are great for wider feet. Similarly, as an Asian person, carb-loading will look different. I never really ate bagels or pasta so I had trouble downing carbs before my first marathon. Instead, I ate tons of noodles (Pho and Zhangjiangmian for breakfast lunch and dinner) to carb-load. These were foods that I knew how to make, and something I really enjoyed eating, which made running and race-prep less stressful. That week was great.
I really want to inspire the next generation of Asian American runners and help spread knowledge that's not online, but instead only exists in random running WeChat groups. Shoe fitting can be different, since Asian feet are wider on average. Carb-loading will look different.
Q: What has been your mental health journey? (Whatever you wish to share) How has it shaped the way you view your mental wellbeing?
I actually started running because I got stressed while in college. It was in January of senior year that I started running at night, just so I had time to myself and I could run off all the pent-up frustration and stress. I ran pretty much only at night for the first 2 years. It was my own personal form of meditation. Once I got into the rhythm, then I would just zone out and the miles click off easily. When I run, I like to look at the stars and talk to myself about things on my mind. Most of this is driven by my immigrant experience where I always felt like I didn't have a concept of home. For some of the immigrant children reading this, you know what I mean: I've never lived in 1 place long enough for it to feel like home, and my family is really just me, my brother, and my parents. I've never met half my aunts and uncles, and don't see my grandparents because they live on the other side of the world. Because of this, I always felt at home when I was staring at the stars and imagining talking to my own grandparents, ancestors, aunts, and uncles that I have never met. It's cheesy, but it works for me.
Running has also helped teach me that a lot of things are also just outside of my control as well, and I shouldn't always feel that I can try to do better. I believe that life is similar to running a race: sometimes things will go wrong, whether I get tripped up, miss a water station, or even need a surprise toilet break. This kind of stuff will always happen, but what's important is being able to react well and keep going.
Now, my relationship with running is different. I run with a more disciplined approach. I'll still have my emotional stress-venting runs, but they're definitely fewer and further between. Now I'm out there running because I enjoy it :)
