RunnersConnect Team Spotlight: Tereza Terahata

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Where do you live?

I live in the crowded city of São Paulo, Brazil. It has a population of almost 12Mi, if you can you believe that!

How old are you?

I will turn 39 in July, but people say I look much younger 😉

How long have you been running for?

I started running in 2007. The company I worked for, as a benefit to the employees, hired a company to start a running group. They trained three times a week and every time I saw them (principally in the summer) I could not stop

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wondering why they could be so tired and stinky and look so happy. The motivation to join the group was not very noble: I wanted to be fitter, I did not want to renew the plan that I had in the gym and the group was for free and inside the company building complex. After one month I was already addicted to running, but unfortunately three months later I changed to another job and stop running regularly, only going to a park on some Sundays. That was very frustrating. One year later I changed jobs again made my triumphant return to the running world!

What is your favorite race?

I like the Circuito Athenas (10 miles). I think it is because it was my best time in a race (1:31:23).


What do you hope to achieve through RunnersConnect?

I joined the group because I would like to run 10km in 55 minutes. Now after two months, I think I would stay in the group even if it was only to read the funny motivational posts.

What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you on a run?

In 2011 I went to Santos (a city on the coast side) to participate in a run. This city is famous for its football team (have you heard S SILV 08 Tiabout Pelé or Neymar or are they only known in Brazil?). We (my boyfriend and I) arrived in the city the day before. The morning of the race we took a local bus that was going to the start line. As incredible it may sound, the driver got lost and after half an hour we were back in front of the hotel again.

So we arrived super late and started after the people that were only there to walk. I knew that a PR would be impossible, but I was going to try until… we came to a tunnel that was two km in and then the craziest thing happened: everybody stopped inside the tunnel and started to sing the Santos Football Club Song. What? Yes, I stayed in the tunnel I guess for about three minutes and the result is that I still know parts of the song by heart. No, I do not regret that I went to this race.

Another race that I like to remember was the one in February. I went to a wedding the night before, went to bed at 3 AM and woke up at 6 AM to race at 8 AM. I was very tired and wanted to give up and started to slow down at about three km. A woman beside me screamed ‘come on, let’s go girl’ and it motivated me again. By the seventh km it was the opposite, I saw that she was slowing down and went beside her to try to motivate her. We ran together the last three km with a very nice sprint in the end (a picture of this moment is on my Facebook page). When we finished we gave each other a hug as if we were old friends. A wonderful moment to remember. At the end, in spite of the goals I set, I am not sure what is best about running: the feeling of accomplishment to reach a new PR or all the things that happened along the way there.

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