Hell, I eat and drink this low esteem. Probably genetic, or even a paradigm from my ancestral stereotype that Chinese are not genetically born with good stamina. Smoking cigarette and drinking beer surely doesn't help naturally.
I did train as many hours spent running near my neighbourhood on a 10 km track, but not extensively, doing like 3 or 4 reps in a week. I did, however did just 2 or 3 20 km about 2 weeks from the event day, but hey I surely did not finish a 42 km in a single session.
A friend of mine whose is a pacer from derkeenrunner.com for the event even warn me that if I did not train "enough" I would be coming back in an ambulance (as there were no sweeper bus for this event). This did not spell a motivation for me either.
But hell I did registered my place early bird, so I thought to myself... just give it a go... I'll bring 50 bucks in my pocket in case I really can't finish the race.... "TAXI"!!!!
The race started at 5 am. I was there at the event at dataran merdeka on board the shuttle bus provided by the event organiser. I parked my car at the Kelana Jaya LRT station, and board the bus at about 4.00 am with 2 young and charming young ladies volunteers ushered me to the bus after I parked my car at the station. Seeing them, I had a really good feeling that the event was surely gonna be a good one, compare to the one that was not-so-organized which I attended earlier in April at the Sepang International Circuit.
The race started after the gun and there we go.
As this is my first full marathon, I was only hoping to finish the race within the 6 hours qualifying time. As I hoped, it was indeed one of the most professionally organised event I have ever attended. There were so many water stations, at the end of the race, I just needed to pee. There was also a banana station at KM 16 and another power gel station somewhere KM 26 or so.
Pain is inevitable, suffering however is optional. I found this is very true on KM 30 onwards. I believe this could be different for every runner, but my pain started then at the upper thigh muscle which forced me to take a break every 1 pr 2 KM just to stretch and apply some Perskindol lotion (minty lotion), which didn't work for me after a few applications, I didn't feel the minty sensation at all after. But hey, maybe it's just me.
The last few KM before the finish line was really a struggle for me. Every step was a pain and even walking hurts. Pain was coming from muscles which I didn't know they exist. I notice that even my sweating has stopped, my body was becoming dry! But at the final kilometre, I have experienced something that I have never experienced before in my entire life.
Just minutes from the finish line, where you could see finishers walking to their cars at the opposite directions, there were actually crowds of people, ordinary people, cheering at the finishers. This was the greatest motivation for me to finish the race and somehow, I found some sort of emergency pack in my body to race to the finish line. I ran without looking back.
With the crowd cheering, some of them even reminding me to "Smile for the camera!!!"
I finally finish my very first FULL MARATHON with a time of around 5 hours and 22 minutes. And some radio DJ was right, it definitely feels much better than waking up on late Sunday morning drinking coffee on my lazy couch.
Thank you Standard Chartered Marathon, I will surely see you next year!!!
