Journaling for this book began when Hae was accepted into the New York City Marathon. She achieved a qualifying time a year earlier at the Rome Marathon in April 2018. Starting in February 2019 she began writing about her daily training, her nutrition, and her workout recoveries—how she learned from training mistakes, struggles, disappointments, and triumphs, all the while intertwining her life's pearls of wisdom and understanding of running as an amateur athlete. Targeting the 2019 New York City Marathon, her training became a three-year journey to finally run the marathon in 2021.