Nguyen Dang Trung, champion of Backyard Ultra Vietnam, ran 54 rounds, equivalent to more than 362km, for 2 consecutive days, at the Backyard Ultra World Championship in the US. With each 6.7km long roundabout, he only had 1 hour to complete it and then continued until the others gave up. In the race that people call "Last Man Standing", Dang Trung is not only the last person on the race track, the only one to finish, but he even broke the record.
With such a short break, perhaps everyone understands what Dang Trung has gone through on his journey. From fatigue, pain in the body, to lack of sleep, he still persistently participated in each round.
Dang Trung's story is not just a running angle. It is the journey of a person who is steadfast in his limits, with the choice to challenge himself. In this harsh format, speed is not a measure, but endurance. The winner is not the fastest, but does not give up. It is also possible that, between fierce running rounds, the goal of raising funds to help poor students has given runners great motivation, so that every step of the run is meaningful.
Of course, Dang Trung's mark inspired many people, even someone willing to rush to practice immediately. But, the lesson here is the power of patience. Exercise, like life, is not every day that "breakthroughs", so that when there is too much endurance, you give up after a short time. What is necessary is to progress little by little, regularly, at the right pace, not giving up. A healthy body is not created after a few sessions of enthusiasm, but from hundreds of days of discipline. A dream is not shaped by the times of "trying to run faster, trying to dance further, trying to do more things...", but by "always being there".
Running, or doing anything, is not simply to win. And to prove that glory also comes from repetition, from small steps, small things every day, but firm.
The world still loves speed in many fields and aspects, but to have that speed, the principle is still to practice persistently every day, patiently improving step by step. Because there are no shortcuts. Be persistent, because every worthy road is very long.
