Whatever Matters Most Through the Lens

First half marathon

Lately, in addition to chili plantin’, i have been engrossed with the sport of marathon.

At first i was like, “OH HELL NO, why would i torture myself like that?”. At that time i was really of the mindset that marathons are crazy activities that super-fit, genetically blessed people can do.

And then after some training, i started to run 5km, then bumped up the volume to 7km and then finally 10km. I felt good about myself and i seriously considering joining a marathon someday. So i tried to join the half-marathon first.

I enrolled myself for the Putrajaya marathon a few months back. Problems with the registration system caused my entry to be missing and deemed UNPAID. I was so demoralized by this that i lost motivation to run straight away, because :-

1. I wanted to accompany my brother along for the run, as he was just coming off a hard and messy break up.
2. My partner in crime, Sit Mei has also registered to run and she also lost motivation after my entry was declined.
3. After training and watching my diet for 2 months, the feeling of entry declined was like getting slapped on the face with a huge stinkin’ trout.

In a fit of anger, i registered for the next event, the 21KM Energizer Night Run. The website looks good and its sponsored by Adidas as opposed to the Putrajaya was sponsored and managed by , hooha.asia. So i quickly paid RM60 for the event, not knowing that the price is too high compared to Putrajaya night run which was RM25.

And then came Chinese New Year, and the eating binges LOL. I was without proper training for 2 months in the lead up to this event. The most i was running was 6-7km and that was done on Kampar with no slopes, and even then i was wheezing . Lucky for me, i did also enrolled for the 10KM Bareno run in Bkt Jalil, which is a stone’s throw from my home. I did this intentionally as a pre marathon preparation and also to get my motivation up by getting an not-so-difficult medal.

Bareno run Medal, checkpoint ribbons and cert.

After completed the 10KM Bareno run, i felt that my preparation needed a bit of work (i was dehydrated and fell sick that very night after the run), but other than that i felt ready to tackle the 21km.

I ramped up my training, running 8-10KM laps for the week leading up to the big night. I also avoided spicy food as much as i could. Thanks to SM and my family for that never ending motivations.

On the 25th, i collected my running jersey, I got the XXL because they ran out of sizes (doesnt it look like Adidas is trying to get rid of old stocks?) and bloody hell it didnt fit me, the jersey was too long neck area was too tight up. My brother suggested that i ditched the lousy shirt and went for the normal shirt that i ran with previously, a black Nike drifit singlet. SM’s one also didnt fit as it was too tight for her. What a letdown.

But we didnt let it get to us, i got an additional *shrunken* dri-fit Nike shirt that SM could wear and she was ok with it.

The big night

We kinda screwed up the race day as we were very busy and we ate McD burgers for lunch (bad bad choice, do not REPEAT!), we didnt even get to take a short nap leading up to the run. I’ve made up my mind to change this on my next run.

We reached Cyberjaya around 7pm, and my reporting time was 7.30pm and SM’s was at 8.30. We parked at HP’s car park and walk over to take the Park and Ride transit buses. I have to say that the service was good as buses were plentiful and it saves us from the parking squeezes at the end of the event. Oh yeah, on the way we saw 2 full marathoners on the last 5km stretch already, and it’s just 7.15pm and they started at 5.30pm.

7.45pm – I reached at the starting point, collected my headlamp and waited. I noticed the intense heat of the night, i was sweating just standing there. I thank God that its a night run and not a morning run as for sure i will get dehydrated and hit the wall early into my run.

Getting the headlamps working.

8pm – PREETTTT!!!! The half marathon run starts! I heard screams and shouts, and saw some cheerleaders cheering us on. What a motivation! ALRIGHT, BRING IT ON!

8.30pm – Feelin’ good as i approach the 5km mark. Found a pacer to pace and the view was nice (hehehehe). Also, got the first sponging station and passed on the idea of dropping ice cold water on my self, little did i know that was the ONLY sponging station that i will encounter that night.

9.15pm – passed the 10km mark. I was going slower than i was when i trained because i didnt want to overexert myself so early in the race. Also i felt some amount of rumbling in my stomach. GODDAMMIT BURGER!

Imagine ,that, swirling around in your stomach.

9.45pm – Passed the 15km mark. At this point i started stopping as the stomach rumbling developed into gas and i wasnt feeling well with a gassy stomach. Tried to expel some but there was too many runners behind me.

10pm – Cramps started to happen . The darn watering station had NO WATER! Stomach’s getting worse…

10.20pm – 16km mark. Bomba shower , was really refreshing and i found new energy to run by a volunteer whom said “2km left.” When in actual fact, i found out later, there’s 5 km left, pushing myself to run for nothing.

10.30pm – 17km mark. Cramps happening frequently now, can only manage to run short distances before resorting to walking and stretch my cramping calves. Warm gatorade helps somewhat but also aggravates my stomach condition. Can only resort to changing my stride to accomodate the weak calves.

10.45pm – 19km mark . have to resort to walking.

11.10pm – Crossed the finishing by running and cramped up at the red line.

11.30pm – Reached the goodie bag table which was like 150m away and SM found me looking blur and staggering about. Why the heck is the price collection table so bloody far away?

Finally,  i finished the race with 3hrs and 15minutes (according to my chip), a far far cry from my intended time. There was a lot of lesson learnt in this run that i will improve the next time around. It was a bitter sweet victory as i needed to wake up earlier tomorrow and dredge it through the whole day with painful muscles.

21km – Mine, 10km – Sm’s

Thanks to my family, friends and SM especially for their support. Next up, Stan Chart KL Marathon!