This weekend a marathon ( 马拉松 ) took place in Salzburg. I admired the runners who ran 42.2 kilometers for over four hours. But I've never run for more than half an hour.

At university I play korfball. This is a team sport with eight people on each team. The aim is to shoot ( 投篮 ) the ball into the hoop. All players get a chance to attack ( 攻 ) and defend ( 守 ) during the game and it's very fast. When I started korfball, I wasn't very good at it. I could throw and catch but I wasn't very fast on my feet. Shooting was also difficult for me. However, I really enjoyed the sport and made friends in the club, so I went training twice a week. Two years later I am in the first team for my university and have played in many matches. This just shows if you train hard, you can succeed.

Running is difficult because you have to make yourself willing to keep going. I used to get really out of breath while running and I didn't feel good at all! Now I actually enjoy going for a run along the river in Salzburg, feeling my muscles ( 肌肉 ) working and breathing in the fresh air.

Challenging exercise is always worth doing. Hiking is fun because all the hard work—walking uphill comes at the beginning of the day, then at the top of the mountain you can enjoy the view. At the end of the day you feel like you've really achieved something.

I will never be a marathon runner, but I would like to try a 10-km run sometime, or perhaps even a half-marathon. How happy the runners were as they crossed the finishing line! I'd like to have that feeling—the months of training paying off as you achieve your goal.