The Toughest Day of My Life

SCKL 2012 was my first full marathon and it showed me where my physical and mental strength level was at. My limit was 32km, that’s it. The next 10km was pure torture, mentally and physically. It was like a battlefield in my mind, positive thoughts, negative thoughts, bible verses, vulgar words, motivational quote, negative quotes, etc. It really showed me who I really was, and it’s pretty disappointing. But this marathon showed me which area I have to improve on if I wanna be ‘an influencer and a role model’.

I reached KL by bus at about 3.30pm, walked from Pudu bus stop to Masjid Jamek to take the LRT to KLCC. That was the meeting point for Soongs and I. I had about 3 hours to kill, so I went to Kinokoniyo, not exactly the place you would find me, but the sports section made me spend hours and dollars there. Tough decision to make as there are a lot of sports books that I wanna read to improve myself as an athlete. In the end, I settled for Lance Armstrong’s biography.

I then went to Starbucks and started the book “Lance”. First 50pages of the book already made me go “wow, I didn’t know this.” It is definitely worth my 60 bucks. Soongs was suppose to meet me at 6.30pm but he came at 7.30pm. Was I surprise? The answer is NO. This is a typical trait of Soongs. =p We had quick dinner at the food court and was ready to go home to rest after that.

I bought a knee guard from Watson and Soongs decided to have a 15 minutes hair cut somewhere in KLCC. I went to the hair saloon and waited about 5minutes for him. On our way home, in the LRT, I realized I lost my knee guard! I search high and low, in and out but I still couldn’t find it. Soongs thought I was lying and I was in a delusion because he never actually saw the Watson plastic beg when I was him. But I was very sure I bought it. After reaching Kelana Jaya, I quickly walked into Guardian and bought the same thing, only RM5 more expensive. I told the cashier about the incident and she laughed. I blame Soongs for it!

Got back to his not so Home Sweet Home and unpacked my stuff. Got my race bib number and pin it on my race belt. The house was like an oven, super hot and being me so use to sleeping shirtless with air con, this is gonna be a problem for me. I persuaded him to turn on the air con and finally he did. (Long story about the air con. Funny but nothing interesting) We talked a little in bed, shared bout life and updating one another about our adventure. It was good time and it could be better if Gerard was around. =) Then we can have a real agapean boys reunion.

Slept probably like 3hours then it was go time. Suit up, and took the shuttle bus from KJ to Dataran Merdeka. The crowd was building up but it wasn’t that crowded yet because we were there about 4am. Spotted the 4.5 hour pacer and I was determine to stick with him. My personal target was 4 hours 30 minutes and 2^nd best target was under 5 hours. As the emcee started the countdown, I was extremely nervous and scared. My weekly mileage is less than 10k, how?

The gun went off, and first 1km was like a massive jam with people everywhere. I trail the pacer as near as I could and hoping to stay with him as long as I could. There were a few guys which ran directly behind him and its super hilarious to see the pacer’s balloon bouncing against the guy’s head. At one point the pacer’s balloon burst, not because of the runner behind him but because it struck a pointy tree branch along the way. Fortunately they have 3 4.5hour pacer.

4.5 hour pacer balloon

10K. No problem la. Still going strong.

20K. No problem wor. I even overtook the pacer and went up in front at my own comfortable pace. So proud of myself.

30K. Oh…not bad wor. Still feel strong.

32K. Uh la la!!! Cannot liao, starting to feel cramp on both legs.

32.5K No!!!

33K What?!?!? Only ran 500 meters. Soon the pacer caught up, I tried to stay with them but my legs don’t allow me too anymore. I gave up!

34K What I took almost 8 minutes? Never mind, let’s try something different, run 1 minutes rest 30 seconds. (Something I do at the gym for speed training)

35K Holy sh*t! Cannot liao. Please stop hurting the legs.

36K Uphill?!?!?! Wt…

37K Tears came down, a volunteer shouted 5 more km to go! But this 5K felt like eternity because every step you take hurts to my guts!!! When I reach 37K point, I had 30minutes more before my target time. It looks achievable but he hills, the cramp and the pain was already unbearable. Any kind of motivation and inspiration quote DID NOT WORK from this point onwards.

38K @$(@#$)(@#*$#@(*$@#_)*!@)#(!*#

39K _$#)(_@#)$*)#*@&$)!@#+_!@)$+_!!

40K ($*@#)$(!&@)$(*!@_$)(!@&$)*@!&$)

41K $)(#@*$_)#@($*)@#($*)@#($*@#)($*

42.128K hallelujah!! PTL!

Showing off my medal =)

I tried running my last k but couldn’t at all, I walked jogged walked jogged and finally crossed the line as a full marathon finisher with an official time of 4:48:05. 18minutes 5 seconds behind my target time. But the feeling of finishing the marathon was priceless! A quote by some volunteer on a big board, “Finish the marathon and brag about it for the rest of your life” at the last 1K was really motivating. I can’t imagine myself doing an IronMan race or another full marathon but I know after I recover from my race, I will wanna push myself again and be more prepared for my future race.

Met Deriss at the finishing line and chatted a bit with her before I head back to the Noesis waiting point. Took some pics with Soongs and I went for a sports massage. RM20 for 15minutes, only lower body but I was desperate for it, so RM20 felt small at the time but the massage was fineeeee. Enjoyed it! Even recommended Soongs to get one. His boss laughed at him because he only did a half marathon but still go for such massages. Hahaha! Funny!

Super good massage

Super duper good massage

Hurts like anything

From the moment we left the tent, fatigue, scuffing marks, blisters and muscle sore started to ‘manifest’. It was pure torture. It felt like I just had a knee surgery because I can’t bend my legs due to the tightness in my thigh muscles. Imagine, with all this pain, I had to take the LRT and bus to LCCT before flying back home to Penang. On top of that, I had to pack for Jakarta for a 3 week business trip. Not good. In my future race, I will definitely take leave to recover and not push my body like this. Insane.

I am not in the 1% group of the world population (those that completed a full marathon), and I urge you guys to try this, challenge yourself, I guarantee you, you will learn something about yourself. But please train for it before signing up because it’s NOT easy AT ALL. See you in PBIM 2012.

Soongs and I 2012

Next up 160K century ride.