Brooks Marathon

我之所以坚持跑步是因为我认为这运动适合个人锻炼体魄也能锻炼意志力。

今天我参加了人生第一场21KM的Half Marathon。

之前参加过两次10KM马拉松，所以对我来说21KM是非常非常期待也担心也害怕。

期待是如果我成功完成了这项马拉松，那对有低血压又有气喘底子的我绝对是个成就。

担心和害怕的是不晓得路程是如何也不确定自己的意志力，体力，肌肉持久力如何。

还有，姨妈他妈的也在这种时候探访我。

还没开始跑，但已经看见一些专业runners已经在warm up里汗流浃背了。

5：30am枪声就开了，被人群挤在中间的我缓慢地向前走，越过起跑点。

本来的行程是坚持不断慢跑跑一路完21KM，又或者坚持不断跑10km然后快走到终点。

开始的时候很多很多人都是像飞一样，我就像乌龟慢慢Take my own sweet time在一边跑。

很闷热，还没到一公里我就已经满身大汗，身上也没带上毛巾什么的。

我一路慢跑到大约2KM，就开始了-山坡大战。

难怪会被称为BUKIT Jalil，真的是处处都是bukit。

我坚持我的信念，即使是bukit我都要慢跑。

就凭着这个信念，在爬山时我越过不少参赛者。

一路到8公里我也不晓得我越多少个山坡，总之就是数不尽。

因为一直连续都用大腿的力量跑上坡，结果大腿开始有点点的疼痛。

我忍着，坚持要一路跑到10KM才能停。

可能因为是山坡的关系，跑到了8KM我却觉得比跑10KM还来得远，真的是一场辛苦的路途。

好不容易到10KM却又跟自己说如果还能就再坚持多5KM，一定要跑。

我就真的慢慢，非常慢地跑，别人快走都越过我。>.<

管他的，我的目标就是慢跑。

到了13KM真的不行了，只好快走。

到这时，我肩膀的肌肉也因保持同样跑步的姿势而疼痛，脚板脚趾好像给东西压着，叫开始抬不起来。

明明大腿一点点痛，脚趾脚板非常痛（我明明还特地穿两双袜子），却还要一路快走到最后。

一看到Finishing Line，就像一只箭冲着去。

我跑马拉松的概念：你可以坚持一路慢跑到底或走到底，但最后一定要finish strong！

领了自己的finisher tee还有一个可爱的小奖杯就在一旁坐着按摩自己的小腿大腿，顺便等朋友抵达。

这次真的得称赞自己，虽然用3小时半，但我觉得我这次真的做得很好。

拼着自己的意志力，不放弃死都要到终点的精神，对此我很骄傲。

也没有怕输的心态，只是一味的凭意志力坚持到终点。

也很感谢自己一路以来去健身把自己的腹肌锻炼得好，要不然现在的我真的会是全身都痛。

整段路程做的不好的地方应该就是没好好调查路的种类。

是没想到真的会有那么多的山坡。

现在的我刚把自己的双脚浸在冰水里休息休息。

肩膀的肌肉疼痛，臀部的肌肉疼痛，脚板的肌肉疼痛，我相信明天就是大腿和小腿的肌肉疼痛。

21KM是一个很艰难的路程，特别是在山坡上，但征服后的你绝对会自己刮目相看。

有机会，我觉得人生一定要试一次21KM，这是一种考验自己mentally和physically的我项目，征服了它后的你绝对会到另一种境界。

We Run KL 2012

Warning: This post will be in ENGLISH. No specific reason. Just feel like to. Arigatou.

So the past week was full of challenges, with high case counts, Nike Run, and my best friend’s convocation. Oh well, and actually this week too.

Back to the original topic, yea, I was fucking busy the whole last week. I apologize for my F word, it’s becoming my habit especially when I’m in PMS mood, and to all of you, I have PMS mood every single 365 days now, and so, don’t F with me. *lol*

I’m not gonna talk about my case counts and shit here now, so we’ll jump straight to ‘We Run KL 2012’ that I’ve joined. This is my 1^st 10km run in my entire life which I looked forward to it badly since last year. I’ve adapted to a habit of jogging frequently, perhaps once every two days, starting from I graduated from my university.

I still recalled that was a day with pouring rain early in the morning around 10:30am. I was at the market getting my lunch and I was stuck in the fucking wet market for 45 min standing there, just for sake to wait the rain to get small. The distance between wet market and my condominium is just like maybe 50 steps away, and the rain was so damn huge that I can’t even dash to the gate of my condo. Fuck my life. I ended up borrowing polystyrene from fruit stall uncle and dash to the gate. And yea, you are right there; my whole body is drenched except for my head. It’s cool but not that cool.

At around 3+pm, it turned into drizzling. I was thinking if I should go or not to go to that event. It’s not about the 35 bucks that I’m wasting but I know my body well, it just can’t seem to withstand any attack, regardless of external environment or anything else. But  I’m such a dedicated runner I guess, I still proceed to KLCC to meet up with Ah fei.

So I stayed with my sis for about half an hour while waiting Ah fei to come over. I’ve put all my belongings in Fei’s car and only carry a small pouch, which is just sufficient to hold my IC and 10 bucks note inside it. I was even joking just in case I get lost or anything, at the least I can go take LRT and bus to my house.

We have absolutely no idea how should we walk over to the starting point, which was at around Zouk Club. But thanks god, we just kinda follow the crowd and manage to exit from a particular exit in KLCC (Sorry guys, I forgot the gate name), which leads to the starting point. We are not late, its just 5pm I guess, and according to the brochure that we got in the race pack, the event should start at 5:30. Crowd is getting tremendously huge as time passed; we are suffocating inside the crowd. I barely have the space to do my warm up. Crap.

Gun shot at 5:40. No idea why it is 10 min late.  Imagine you are about to run 10k later but you have to STAND for 40 min, grasping for air just to wait for the gun shot. OK, remember I say gunshot is at 5:40? Now, I’m not in front of the line, I’m kindda in the middle. So we basically have to wait for those who are in the front line move, before I can cross the starting line. That was 5 min after. Holy shit, I crossed the line at 5:45, even though the gun shot at 5:40.

I did slow jog for about 700m and then changed my pacing, just to make sure I don’t fall behind. The starting part of route is alright, except for the narrow road which is so packed that we got to zigzag here and there, just to cutover some walkers. I reached 2km, starting from 2km to 7km, it’s all highway roads. That’s the part where I began to get real slow. SLOPES, SLOPES and SLOPES. During my training, I can run like 1 hour plus on a flat road without stopping, but once I hit slopes, I can’t afford to run anymore. SLOPES are my WEAKEST PART. I walked each uphill, dashed downhill and jog on flat road.

There are times when people just don’t move to their left hand side when they walked, especially those students who barely trained. You can actually see them half dead walking starting from 5km. It’s perfectly fine to walk, but damn, those students, they chit-chat with their friends, walked side by side on the road, hogging the road. The most outrageous part is there are couples holding hands walking slowing, as if they are shopping. We have no choice but to zigzag pass them while dashing. It’s really irritating to zigzag while I’m jogging. And since I barely has any chance to jog uphill and I’m having flu that time, my breathe lost control, and I was like doing my best to take deep breathe, to counter-attack the lack of oxygen on the hill.

At about 5-7km, everything is still fine. Most people gave up and walked, and the crowd has dispersed. Well, most of them are left behind. Ridiculous moment came, at 8km onwards, I ran pass my office, and along that road, Nike management only block like A LANE for us. We have tons of people trying to run on that lane, but man, it’s just a single lane and there are people who walked on that lane. That lane is hogged. Adding on to running on the road and uphill, now we have to run up and down on pavement, just to overpass those walkers again. Finally I saw the finishing banner at the final 400m point. I was grasping for air already, muscles feel tight, but thanks to my kiasu-ness, I dashed for 400m to the finishing line.

 From the finishing line to the counter to collect my finisher tee, the pack is like damn shitty. Our legs are weak after finishing 10k, grasping for oxygen, whole body sweat like its Sahara desert over here, but dang, it’s crowded with people! Oh boy, I’ve being literally ‘pushed’ into the crowd and have to go with the flow. Everyone’s sweat is all mixed up, the sweat smell is so strong that I might pass out soon I thought, I even see some people fainted and have to clear a road for those people to carry them to the tent. *Eyes wide open*

So I got to the point where I can collect my finisher tee. Due to the rainy season and the pouring rain in the morning that day, Padang Merbok is full of mud, and when I mean full of mud, I MEANT it. The level of muddy is extreme; your shoe will immerse into the mud for like 1/3, you can feel the mud get into your socks and you have to pull your foot each time you walk a step.

I got my banana, mineral water, ice cream and my finisher tee. I’ve lost Ah Fei. We agreed to wait each other at the stage, but stage is just too far from me, I’ve get to a tent which sells powerbar and wait to see if he will pass up or not. Thanks god, we have fate. He found me in the end. So his scenario is even more pity than mine. As far as I’m concern, my Nike shoes just got into mud, but his ankle is kind of sprain because someone push him.

It is total white when I run with it and it came back with mud all over.

Nike Running Shirt. We have to run in this shirt.

My results is so-so for the total 10 km due to my flu and my unexpected flu before the run.

But I did break my own record for fastest 1 km and fastest 5km. :)

Ranked 700 and above among 15,000 for my first 10 km. Not bad eh.

Anyway, it’s a great experience, if we don’t take Nike Event team into consideration.

I will still join again next year and hopefully I can join more 10km run in the year to come.

I’m now looking forward to Penang Bridge International Marathon 10km during Nov, and I’m gonna train harder for that!