After 11 months of training, i stepped on the starting line of Penang Bridge International Marathon. There were about 1000 other runners of all ages, in the full marathon.
The time was 1.55am, at this hour, the weather was just perfect. I took off my sandal, keep it at the road side, joined the crowd, a bit of last minutes warm up. The DJ gave last minutes briefing, she reminded "some part of the road might have glass, if you run without shoes, please be careful" . There must be other barefoot runner. At 2.00am sharp, "boom", here we go, this is the real thing!
I started the first 4km quite slow, since i have not been doing any real run for the pass 6 days. The road condition were not bad, some part were rough. A man ran near me and greet me, how glad, another barefoot runner, he was from Kuala Lumpur, we chat a while, there was another runner in five fingers ahead of us. This must be the lucky day! In opposite direction, another barefoot runner ran toward us, from the turning point, he was a fast one!
At km 8, i lost track of the barefoot runner, he must have speed up. I increase my step length a little bit, ran pass the 4.5 hour pacer. I was aiming at sub 4, or 4 hour. At this point all my body had warm up to the optimum condition, so i just let them flow. Breathing was smooth, nasal breathing all the way, cadence was high, heart just pumping at normal rate. Everything just clicked. By the end of the bridge, i checked my watch, almost 20km, but the distance marker shocked me, 16km.. i was, huh? i am 20 minutes behind my pace? But after like 4 minutes, there was another marker that read 20km. so i was on the right track.
At km 22, i was in very good form, until the heavy rain struck. the sudden change of temperature stiffed up my muscle, i was all wet, cold, and the muscle start to feel pain. This is something i never train for, and something i never expect. My sole start to feel the road become sharper, i slow down to walk because the rain was too heavy. After 20 minutes or so, the heavy rain stop. i took off my vest, clip the bib number on my running shorts, and hit the road, but my form was out, my moral were low.. i didn't plan to walk, not at km 24.... Carrying the wet heavy vest wasn't good idea, so i throw it away. The pain kept attack the top of my knee, and the top of my foot, near the ankle. Ok, this is not fun anymore..
3:45 minutes, i am at km 32, the last turning point where the organizer served the power gel and banana, i took a pack of power gel in strawberry flavour, and consume it. not the tastiest thing on earth, but i NEED it badly. At this point, the pain have attack my upper leg badly, my ankles felt like they were made from ice, it felt like if i move any harder they might just snap. the sole are taking the punishment from the wet rough road. I came to realised i really need to do something about it, or the last 10km is going to be my nightmare. I chat and jokes with the scout a while, to relax myself and cheer up the scout who look more tired than me :-)
I walk to the middle of the road, took a deep breath and use the Scott Jurek trick... i told myself, "look, you have just wake up, you have not done any run today. Ahead of you is a road spanning 10km. what is 10 km? 10km is a piece of cake, you did that all the time, almost everyday. come on jones, you are stronger than this!" In a few deep breath and i hit the road again. i ran with everything i left, keep telling myself, "i am stronger than this, there is no pain, just relax, stay calm, relax...".
The pain seems to goes away, i am back in business!
By 40km, i faced a massive army of 10km runner, they have just been "launched". Those fresh, strong, young and fast runners were occupying every lane. I have hard time running in opposite direction. I almost knocked down by a runner. there was an older runner behind me that cursed the kids! We pace each other through some 4,000 "10km runner", and head for the finishing line. So that was it... crossing the finishing line, my first marathon!
My watch showed 4:45:01. i didn't look back at the digital board, i know the time is not far from my watch time. 45 minutes more than what i plan, still, i am happy that i conquered the last 10km.
My sole were quite pain, but no blister. they were perfectly intact :-)
The official result came out today, i was ranked #176 in my category (Men Open)., #311 in mix category, and #344 in overall category.
Found this picture, someone was kind enough to take my photo, and share it :
(image courtesy of http://picasaweb.google.com/khokl74)
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