second half marathon!

I just finished running my second half marathon! I haven't gotten my official time yet, but I'm assuming it's around 3:35-3:40. Oklah much worse than my last time which was 3:16 but still I get to finish the distance.

Honestly this time around, I didn't train that much. I wish would've, then I would be up and running instead of in bed recovering.. yikes! So all these while, I did few training itu pun around workplace, which was like what once a month. Work was kinda taking my time lately... Hmmmm, come to think about it, why should I invest so much time in work when I'll be getting the same compensation>> So I guess if I were to put the same work commitment and dedication to my training schedule, I'm sure I'll even do better if not great personal time as well as great bods (I'm saying MY personal time okay, errrr, maybe sub 2.30 is not great for others, but for me that's great) .

So here's how the journey begin.... I signed up for BIM half marathon sometime in march with the hope in two months time I actually trained. Days and months passed, yesterday came. Boy, time flies! Went to pick up my race kit and bought two power gels for the run. I also did a great stretching/warm up yesterday by bringing my nieces to 1B. The night before was quite nerve-wrecking, I was nervous about not finishing, about not training, about not being waken up by the alarm.... So I picked up the most boring book of all, and finally dapat juga tidur...

The morning...
I woke up at 3am - shower, get ready, make coffee and find breakfast in the kitchen... By 4am I was already at the door, driving to Likas Stadium while having breakfast in the car. Reached LS around 4.50 and started warming up and taking the pre-run snack.

By 5.30 am, the siren started, and people started running.... I tried not to rush the first few kms, remember the analysis I did in my previous post? heheheh... So one by one started passing by me . The first few kms was okay but my pace wasn't fast enough to pick up the 8 mins/km pace. I was running basically around 9 mins/km and this was during the first few kms.. We passed through pasar where the 10k runners turned around (5km marker).. At that time, I kinda wished I was running for the beginner 10k.

Next we passed wawasan plaza, and this was when the trouble began.... My legs started to hurt, so I started rubbing muscle rub on them... The thing about this muscle rub , it's kinda like minyak panas... It felt hot and kinda give that numb feeling to the muscles... By 730 am, the sun came out, and let me tell you, it was freakingly hot... Okay, I complaint 2 years ago that the sun was hot right? This year around, it was burning hot! Is it possible that our ozone has thinning over the course of two years?

Instead of going into Sutera Harbor, the route this year is a bit different. We go into Tg Aru, and turned around at Waikiki Apt. That was the 10.5 marker. Oh yea, I did post a facebook status update on-the-run :D

Going out from Tg Aru, I passed the great Ulai who ran her first FULL MARATHON... Okay, that's 42 KILOMETERS> That's far! Only someone who has her commitment and guts dare to take on that challenge. And the thing is, she looked pretty good at her 30km... when I was almost limping on my 13km...

I started to run-walk on my 15km... the weather was hot- my face and legs felt burning hot. So next time, have to wear cap. The weird thing was, my fingers were practically swollen! I got the fat fingers symptoms on the run.. This was new experience to me coz it didn't happen to me last time. I'm assuming it was because of the too warm weather???

So going back to Likas Stadium was kinda painful, I think I almost hit the wall! Worse point, Jesselton to LS. It was hot, my legs hurts, my big fat fingers numb - I think at one point I almost wanna quit and be picked up.. But I didn't ... So I kept running and (occasionally walk) until I reached the finishing line ! Yeay --- so the truth is maybe it's 50% mind and 50% stamina.... But having stamina defnitely gives you more confidence of finishing...

By the time I reached the stadium, the others were already there... We waited for the great Ulai to finish her 42 kms.. cheh, cayalah Ulai....

gonna continue this soon...

7.30 pm - headache, nausea, soreness... I've taken painkillers to ease off the pain, and hopefully tomorrow I can book a massage session. .

p/s Please DO NOT ATTEMPT to run without adequate training. You're just gonna subject to injury (like me)