Over the past few months, I have noticed a recent boom in running, especially with Gen Z. From more running clubs to more participation in marathons, the sport is definitely experiencing a boom. In 2024, marathon participation experienced a new record. Last year, the Paris Marathon set a record with 54,175 finishers but then this record was broken by the New York City Marathon in November with 55,646 finishers.

When I was in middle school, I used to run a lot. I participated in 5K and 10K races back home in Puerto Rico. My favorite race back home is called Lola Challenge Weekend in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is a three day race series event with a 5K on Friday, 10K on Saturday and 21K on Sunday. This year, the Lola Challenge Weekend is from Nov. 7 to Nov. 9, and there are already more than 5,000 people registered. I’ve only ran the 5K and 10K, but in the future I want to do the three races. This event draws athletes from international countries and locals while it also unites people from different ages who share a passion for running.

However, when I started my freshman year at Villanova in 2021, I found it extremely difficult to balance my workload from classes with running. For this reason, I stopped running. However, I always had in mind running a half marathon during my time at Villanova. Each semester, I said “I will start running again” but I never did. It wasn’t until January of 2025 that I decided to resume my running journey. Before classes started this semester, I impulsively signed up for the BMW Love Run Half Marathon in Philadelphia in March of 2025.

I immediately made a training plan with an app called Runna, which uses Artificial Intelligence and allows people to create a running plan based on goals, such as running pace, race date, training plan duration and other features. Runna was recently acquired by Strava, one of the largest fitness tracking apps. This acquisition highlights the demand that running and fitness tracking apps are facing and how both apps can use their core competencies to benefit users who look for personalized training plans. I use both apps and Runna was perfect for me because I had spent so much time without running that I had to start from zero. I had a terrible running pace when I started running this semester, but I took it step by step, because it can be stressful sometimes. I even got very sick in February and thought that I was not going to be able to finish my training plan for March since I stopped running for two weeks. I recovered, got back to running and it was almost March. When I got back from Spring Break, I had around three weeks before the half marathon. I trained a lot during those three weeks, I ran long distances each week and it was hard to train outside with the freezing temperatures. For this reason, I did most of my training at the gym treadmill.

Finally, the big weekend arrived and I was able to run the half marathon. It was an unforgettable experience. The adrenaline pushed me to run way faster than what I had expected. Seeing my friends cheering me on, especially during the endless last mile, made it even better. After long weeks of training and discipline, I could finally check the half marathon off my bucket list.

While I understand that running marathons is completely irrelevant to some people, for me, it instilled a layer of discipline. It allowed me to become more organized. I had a weekly schedule with all my academic tasks but I also made sure to have time to run. I think it can be hard to explain how running can change you. For me, it helps to disconnect and distract my mind from other things. Running is also a mental challenge. It is when I realized that discipline is more important than motivation.