How did I become so good at running?

I just came across a story on Medium in which the author discusses running 5k and what can be considered a good time for running this distance. He mentions various thresholds. Thirty minutes, twenty-five, under twenty, and so on. My narcissistic ego got lit up. There are many running enthusiasts for whom breaking the twenty-minute barrier is a lifetime achievement. In my marathon a couple of months ago I ran every 5k — more than eight of them — in under twenty minutes. Later this year I’ll try to do a standalone 5k race in under 17 minutes.

At 43 I would destroy my younger self in a hypothetical race. I’m better than billions of people on this planet. Of course, there are runners much better than me. But I’m good for my age, and I can continue improving, even as I age. It’s an exciting realization.

It wasn’t always like this. I was a very unathletic kid growing up.

Between the ages of six and nine, I did swimming. I was growing up in Soviet Moscow. Most of all, I remember our commute to the swimming center. I traveled with my Mom. The trams were crowded and would break down frequently. There were no taxis or buses, so a single broken tram would block the rails and bring life in our neighborhood to a standstill. There was also a walk of about twenty minutes from the tram stop to the swimming complex — a miserable experience in the rainy or cold season.

Why I gave up swimming so soon, I don’t remember. I started to enjoy it, but I guess the idea was to focus on school.