This morning I really didn't want to do the marathon. I was supposed to get up at 5am since the marathon started at 6.30am. Instead I slept in and was grumpy thinking wth I have gotten myself into. But of course, I have to do it since I promised myself I would. My training runs were normally 6.6 miles (or half the distance) in 1 hour 9 min and by the end I'd always be exhausted. So I thought that the best time I could possibly do today was 2 hours 20 min which is still crappy. As well, with 6 hours of sleep and my body feeling rather stiff and tired from cycling the previous day, I knew that I'd just suck more.
I rather unwillingly walked to PCC where the marathon starting point was held. It was so crowded. While waiting to start the marathon I talked with this nice lady and she taught me a breathing technique. Inhale 3 times in short bursts and exhale 3 times in short bursts. People always tell me to breath in deeply and slowly but it never worked for me. This new technique however worked wonders! Even by mile 9, I was still fresh and felt like I just started running. Thus I conclude that the secret to running is in the breathing. Pacing of course contributes too. I run with the nice lady cos her expected finish time was 2 hours 10min. If not for running with her, I'd have knowing myself, gone out strong with nothing left at the end. During the marathon, I didn't have to stop to walk (I stopped so many time on my training runs) and at the end, I sprinted to the finish with a time of 2 hours and 15 min. The announcer called out my name out of 4 other people who were also crossing the finish line and told me to smile for the camera which I found quite amusing.
All in all, a great first race. So lucky and glad that I chatted with that lady, if not for her I'd have not only died out there but also gotten a bad finish as well. After the race, I knew that I could have done better, shaving off 10 min shouldn't have been a problem! Next time! Goal (quite conservative) = 2 hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment