This is a late entry for the SMH half marathon that was held on the 17th of May. The title is the moral of the story.
This was my first half marathon in Aussieland. I went with Jane, who brought her friend Gabe, who brought his friend Ralph, and Paul who was nowhere to be seen till the end of the race. It was a nice sunny morning; unlike the other miserable days of that week. Maybe it was just the adrenaline.
Running with 10,000 other people is no laughing matter. There was a jam all the way, and Jane and I lost each other at the 2nd kilometre. The route was 2 laps around roads in the city, and I just ran happily because there were so many people running together it was impossible to lose motivation. Completed the first lap in better timing than I had expected, just when the lead runner finished the race -.-"
Being extremely happy with the first lap, I tried to maintain that pace for the rest of the race, but that only lasted 3 kms. I felt a tingling and decided to stretch it out first, but bad luck; the muscle contracted even more and I was left on the roadside for a good 5 minutes. It just went downhill after that, and the cramps just kept coming back while everyone just whooshed past. The worst one was 200m to the finish line. My whole left leg just died on me, and even a nice uncle who tried to help me must have thought that I was crazy from all that cursing. When he tried to help me stretch my calves my quads cramped. I tried to stretch that but the calves went, back and forth like that for dunno how many minutes while everyone else crossed the finish line.
So close yet so far. Annoyed, I forced myself to finish the thing while still in pain, and my overall time was miserable. The last kilometer took more than 10 minutes wtf. Ah well. At least I finished.
I was not prepared enough this time, and learned many lessons along the way. Nevermind, next year!
Random rant: I miss the post-race watermelon and cendol at Malaysian events. And why don't they give running jerseys with each registration when we pay 3 times the amount?! The finishers' medal so small some more. Rantrant.
This was my first half marathon in Aussieland. I went with Jane, who brought her friend Gabe, who brought his friend Ralph, and Paul who was nowhere to be seen till the end of the race. It was a nice sunny morning; unlike the other miserable days of that week. Maybe it was just the adrenaline.
Running with 10,000 other people is no laughing matter. There was a jam all the way, and Jane and I lost each other at the 2nd kilometre. The route was 2 laps around roads in the city, and I just ran happily because there were so many people running together it was impossible to lose motivation. Completed the first lap in better timing than I had expected, just when the lead runner finished the race -.-"Being extremely happy with the first lap, I tried to maintain that pace for the rest of the race, but that only lasted 3 kms. I felt a tingling and decided to stretch it out first, but bad luck; the muscle contracted even more and I was left on the roadside for a good 5 minutes. It just went downhill after that, and the cramps just kept coming back while everyone just whooshed past. The worst one was 200m to the finish line. My whole left leg just died on me, and even a nice uncle who tried to help me must have thought that I was crazy from all that cursing. When he tried to help me stretch my calves my quads cramped. I tried to stretch that but the calves went, back and forth like that for dunno how many minutes while everyone else crossed the finish line.
So close yet so far. Annoyed, I forced myself to finish the thing while still in pain, and my overall time was miserable. The last kilometer took more than 10 minutes wtf. Ah well. At least I finished.
I was not prepared enough this time, and learned many lessons along the way. Nevermind, next year!
Random rant: I miss the post-race watermelon and cendol at Malaysian events. And why don't they give running jerseys with each registration when we pay 3 times the amount?! The finishers' medal so small some more. Rantrant.
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