Wow, this thread is popular! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who considered an Emi-inspired workout ^^
A bit about why I'm here...
I started working out about a year ago, fueled by... well... a lot of things.
My main problem was insecurity, anxiety and depression over love. I started working out (not just running) to, in much the same way as Emi, escape my problems and try to find a good way to focus on something else-and then I guess exercising is better than drugs right? When running was no longer a laborious task and my body's recovery rate improved to a point where the exhaustion I got from running faded too quickly to provide a distraction I turned to boxing and full-body workouts.
Turns out my problems were just getting started and I picked up the pace around Christmas time. But with exams coming up, the additional work load prevented me from working out and I was forced to stop everything but running regularly for a couple months.
I've been neither motivated to study nor work out since then-save for a couple times a month when I had nothing better to do. But recently I thought back to Katawa Shoujo which I played through sometime between Halloween and Christmas, and it occurred to me that I kind of missed it. So I went and checked on their homepage and hey-new update! Nothing new with Emi's route but I installed it anyway. It deleted my save data so here I am-lucky me I get to play the game from the start AGAIN!
I tried following Shizune's path and it went fine until Hisao went running with Emi. I don't know if this game was made too well on purpose but in that moment I felt horrible for trying to go for Shizune and immediately deleted the save file and started fresh-Emi's route again. I know it's just a game but because it's an emotionally heavy game that gives you tons of feels I guess it makes sense that I felt bad for almost "cheating" on Emi.
I've always thought Emi was the best-clearly has a great amount of motivation and commitment, she's cheerful and looks really cute (reminds me of someone special). I found something familiar with running from your problems (which coincidentally was a big part of her character)-and that stuck with me.
My lack of new sources of motivation (original motivation was my depression from back when I started working out), and the fact that I'm moving away a good long distance (USA->Belgium) has given me the opportunity (although I hate to call it that) to start with a clean slate. So I thought I'd find some motivation-and hey! TADAH!!
After re-playing her route completely I should have something to get me started-and thanks to this thread I now also have something to keep me going! Although I do think I'll skip ahead a bit in the program, something Emi-themed that I love to do anyway sounds good to me!! ^^
I'll keep in mind the lessons I learnt from KS and Emi's route, and I hope others do the same successfully.