Quite a few things have happened quite quickly lately that I haven't been able to update as quickly! :D As you know, I came back from my Ho Chi Minh business trip, went for my first marathon and then went for my first ever church camp. All of which, happened almost within a week.
Madness.
Anyway, I'm going to talk about my first marathon. Will talk about Ho Chi Minh and the "oh-so-great" Park Hyatt Saigon hotel another time. Man, that hotel blew me away.
Anyways.
I signed up for the Adidas Sundown marathon, my first 42km run pretty much on a wimp. It all kinda started out when I was in the midst of trying to lose weight so I was at that time, running alot and started to slowly experiment with longer and longer distances.
But in spite of that, I never did anything more than 11km, as you may have read from my previous blog entry. So obviously, I had no idea what I was in for.
So anyway, to cut a long story short, I did not train for it at all because, I had a bad fall which took more than 2 months to heal, and I was falling sick on and off with a pretty bad case of stomach flu to top it off.
I had thought about forgoing the race this year as there is always next year, but I just could not not go, I somehow thought it was not a right thing to do. So I went, with the plan to jog abit and walk ALOT, since I was told you can actually complete 42km in about 8.5 hours if you walked at a moderate pace.
The event started on a pretty bad note. The logistics I felt was not managed properly. The race site was pretty far away from the MRT station which we were told shuttle bus transport will be provided.
Due to the number of runners returning from the race site after the 10km run and those waiting to get there, there was a huge congestion and there was just not enough buses to take us. I ended up waiting for 25 mins and was 50 mins late past my flag off time. I was pissed.
Anyways.
I started relatively strong, and passed my 11km mark without much adventure except for a nagging knee pain which happens each time I attempted long distances.
Well, after passing the 14th km, I was starting to be afraid, as I was now treading on unfamiliar grounds. I had NEVER IN MY LIFE attempted anything more than 11km, and I was kinda exploring and excited, and yet at the same time, apprehensive as well.
After what seemed like forever, I finally reached the 21km mark. Half time! (and half dead too)
After that point, everything started to go downhill from here. By then, I was feeling pretty bad joint pains in my ankles, knees and hamstring. I started walking alot and tried to do slow runs occasionally, and found that running helped make the joints less painful. That was weird.
About another 5 or 6 km later, everything was in a blur. The join pains have since progressed to ACUTE joint pains and I could no longer run. The hips were hurting and my poor feet were so swollen that the already loose shoes were tight and painful for them.
I remember stopping on several occasions just to remove the shoes and give my feet some comfort, but the moment I had my shoes on again, the feet started to hurt. I later tried to walk bare footed some 2km which did not help much as the thin socks coupled with super sensitive feet by now felt terribly uncomfortable on rough concrete surfaces.
I started thinking what went over me to even want to attempt something like that in my life ever.
Somewhere between the 28th or 29th km, I am seeing lesser people around, and realize I must be one of the last few runners. At this stage, I was seriously considering giving up because there was just too much pain.
Like I mentioned, I could no longer run AT ALL, and it dawned on me, that at some stage, I would not be able to walk too.
Anyway, to cut a super long story and painful experience short, I did not manage to complete the full 42 km distance within the given 9 hours time frame. I only managed to do 38km and then the shuttle bus brought us back.
The post marathon pain was bad as you can imagine, but the worst was during the few hours after the race. Lack of sleep, fatigue and hunger just made it worse. The next day was not that bad, and I'm surprised that the body healed faster than I expected.
Signing up for the marathon was perhaps the craziest decision of my life, and going ahead with it without training was the worst decision of my life, but I do believe I could have done much better had I trained adequately for it.
And guess what? I signed up for the Standard Chartered Marathon almost immediately after that. :D
Oh well, I just felt that since I did not get to complete it the first time, all the more I need to go back and try again.
And this time, I'm going to TRAIN for it.
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