“We got to know your racing event, because I saw your advertising page on facebook! It was also the first year you did the 10k event! I signed my sisters and I up for the 10k, and this year will be the 3rd year we are doing Negative Split! We have been kicking off our running season with this being our FIRST racing event for the past few years!

I’m mostly the one whose been signing us all up for running events where we run together the past couple of years. Anna signs herself up for her big races, but I sign us all up for more. With Diem sometimes I have to sign her up for races and then tell her to train lol.

This will be my 5th year since I’ve gotten back into running.  It’s been tough. I took 10 years off from running after Cross country in high school.

I just decided one day that I was going to start running again. I’ve had an on again off again relationship with the gym and with my weight. I wanted to get back into shape to be honest.

I made plans with my little sister Anna to go do my first run. 3 miles. She’s always running, and the one who inspired me to get back into running. I didn’t think I could make it 3 miles, so I did a pre run before running with her. I could only do 1 mile…and it wasn’t a pretty one. It was horrible. The first 3 miles I ran with my little sister were painful. I still remember it. I was running over 13 min miles,…but I gave it everything I had in me. My sister really got me through my first year of running.  Some people  may think running is just physical, but it’s emotional as well. And it does affect you mentally. I’ve been pretty blessed to have my little sister pull me through those times.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been broken down. But I’ve never stayed down.  I took my failure at the beginning and just kept running.

I’ve had many injuries and struggles with my first few years of running.

I have heart problems and it gets in the way of my running. I feel like it holds me back a lot. I had heart surgery a few years ago, but it’s something that can’t be cured and I will have this condition for rest of my life. I feel like my progress is slow because of it. But I just keep running and training and pushing forward. If I gain an inch it’s still progress.

I started at 13 min miles to now running around 9’30/min miles. I ran my first half marathon, The Spokane half in 2hrs 32mins. Since, then I’ve ran 7 half marathons. 4 of them just last year! My fastest half marathon to date is when I ran the Spokane half marathon for the THIRD time last year ! 2hrs 6mins! That was a huge milestone for me. As to how far I’ve come. Last year was a great running year for me.

I love my sister Diem. When I was training for my half marathons she would always go on my long runs with me. She wasn’t training for any half marathons at the time at all, she was training for 10ks.  But she would go out and run 10-15 miles with me just for fun. Just to run with her sister. The only reason why we ran 15 miles was because I miscalculated the distance!!! It was only supposed to be an 11 mile run. The whole thing about all Asians being good at math is a myth. Lol. Only with your sisters can you run and laugh so hard at the same time.

My goals this year is do a few more half marathons. And many other races inbetween. I really just run because I love to.  Running makes me feel alive even if it’s a painful at times.  It gives me a sense of freedom. Nothing is better than running with sisters. We pick eachother up. Suffer together. We get each other to cross that finish line.”

Anna:

Diem: