#70 - Penang Bridge Marathon

20.11.2010

Joined 10km Run women category today.

Rained heavily with thunders and lightning around 4sth in the morning. Made us all worried as to whether or not we should go for it. After some moment of hesitation, OKN, OZN and I reached there, albeit 7 minutes later than the starting time. My past 2 weeks of jogging proved its worth when I found that I can actually jog quite restlessly.

Restlessly meaning not panting heavily and felt like heart wanna explode halfway. Perhaps it’s because I managed to master the correct breathing technique too. PRACTISE MAKES PERFECT. I couldn’t agree more!

The drizzle didn’t manage to dampen our spirits. The three of us ran separately and agreed to meet at the finishing point, as I purposely left my hp in the car (but u really don’t feel secured without ur hp, really). And it helps to see so many people running with u, instead of seeing only a few ppl around when training for the marathon. I remember once an avid runner one shared with me that u should set urself a pacer.

What is a pacer? Someone who is running ahead of u. Once u set that particular person as ur pacer, make sure u don’t lose sight of him/her. Of course, that will mean that u should choose wisely who should be ur pacer. Don’t la go and choose someone who is definitely gonna be slower than u. I picked a few pacers along my run, more for the fun of it.

And…when u run, just run and concentrate on breathing properly so that u won’t tire urself easily. It certainly won’t help if u keep on thinking of stopping and the finishing line. Just run, don’t stop cos once u stop, u will lose ur momentum. Once u lose it, u are not very likely to continue running. For this round, I kept on telling myself to run at least until I got off from the Penang bridge and kept on pushing the limit further.

It works u know. But I did stop to walk for 15 minutes (that was the time where I slacked slightly, I told myself to walk for 5 min only, then I dragged to 10 min before I dragged to 15min) before continuing my run all the way to the finishing point. The human traffic was high at some point, making it quite hard to squeeze through those people who were basically tired and ended up walking all the way. Navigation is important here. Conclusion, I stopped only ONCE! Big achievement for me, u know? I seldom jog. Most of the time I only go for hiking, badminton and yoga.

The end result? Finished within 70 minutes out of the 90 minutes allocated. I would say not bad for my case. Lucky I trained for the past 2 weeks or else I am pretty sure I won’t be able to pull through it without much difficulty (won’t say with ease, as running is still not my forte).

Thanks to Deepak for being my running mate occasionally for the past 2 weeks. And also for offering me free meal if I made it to the finishing line within the stipulated time. Haha… Now I just need to show my medal to him to claim my rightful meal! ^^