Marathon '07

42.195km.

my super-fit encik (warrant officer), a special forces diver no less, once mentioned to me that it took him slightly under a week to recover from his past marathons. i didnt believe him then.

note the word "then".

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a day prior to my marathon run, i was actually rather worried as i didnt train for the last few week leading to the race day. i had to abandon my trainings due to the inclusion of a new, f-up, mofo officer who just took over command from my previous officer; with this new guy, we were made extremely busy courtesy of his apple-polishing mindset.

so, poor preparation = one hell of a run.

then came D-day.

waking up at 2.30am, i did my last of preparations: styling and waxing my hair, well.. if i'm going out, i might as well go out in style! =p

weiyang, eugene and myself started the race together. inevitably we ended the race seperately, yang in 5h 10min, gene in 4h 40min, myself in 5h 30min.

i was hit with major cramps on my quads and calfs in BOTH LEGS! damn!

and this happened at the 25km mark. yang and myself were doing pretty good time at 2hr 10mins up to that point.

it's only the halfway mark and cramps already took over my legs. double damn!

the pain from the cramps was so bad i turned white, yang panicked for a while thinking that my heart was giving way. i guess the possible effects of all the pasar malam food we binged on did crossed his mind! HA! =p

on a more serious note, the cramp was really bad.

i can't limp on one foot because i had cramps in both legs. so i started running without bending my knees, a-la stick-man style. (i pleaded with yang to go ahead with his own race, which he reluctantly went after i promised i will not die so easily.)

so.. ever seen a full-sized man running like he had a pair of fat chopsticks for legs? yeah, you get the drift.

soon, the pain got so bad i had to abandon my aim of not stopping. i started walking.

as a result from my chopsticks running method, i placed undue stress on my right feet, spraining my feet in the process. shiok.

sensing my cramps could mean a lack of sodium. i downed cups of isotonic 100plus at every drinks station. then i started running again. voila! the sudden intake of fluids further compound my misery with stitches on my sides. double shiok.

by then i still had around 16km more to go. at that point of time, i was really desperate. i really didnt want to abandon the race all together but the pain was tearing me from within my legs straight up to my mind. by now, gene and yang would have been miles ahead of me.

i was really deflated.

it was really a case of me vs myself.

i dug in, way in to get myself jogging again. jog-limping if you may call it. i met yang's girlfriend, sharon on my way back followed by sajc's lingxiang and my rv senior edwin. seeing all these familar faces gave me the boost to go on.

also, i thought of her.

each step was agony, each metre of tar was like a bed red-hot nails, each kilometre takes an eternity to pass.

i was screaming from within.

by some miracle, i managed to ignore the cramps and run the last lap of the race. given my condition, i felt really proud that i did the race in 5h 30mins.

i wasnt tired as i didnt have the chance to exert myself. only thing i did was to run through the pain barrier, which i presume should have taken at least 2years off my total lifespan.

this marathon was literally the most painful activity i've ever done in my life so far. after the cramps set in, i questioned my sanity a couple of times for paying so much to put myself through such torture. but still, i'm glad to have done it.

kudos to gene, his training did pay off! and he did well! =) on the other hand, yang and myself have learnt our lesson and will definitely train next year.. =x

i'm a marathoner. are you? =)

this picture might not show it, but we're all in alot of pain.

sidenote:

i'm definitely going for 2008! who's in?