On the Bareno Half Marathon

The first run of the year, for me. :D Didn't know it would be so soon. And I didn't really train much, though the weight had increased dramatically since Chinese New Year. Had mostly concentrated on trying out different exercises to lose them weights though, just didn't run much. So I guess that was why I performed badly in this one. (Trying to find excuses apparently.) Sad really. T.T

Anyways, flag off for the half marathon was at 530am. Left home at 440am, thinking I would probably be in time for their warm up as well. But who'd knew, the distance from my place to Bukit Jalil via the LDP takes about 30 minutes or so. So by the time I was done putting my shoes and pinning the bib number, the warm up exercise almost completed and the participants were already heading towards the starting line! WTF?

As everyone started running suddenly, I followed suit in blur. The same route that I ran in the last 10km run during the CICM Responsible Care run. I expected there's the hilly route in the run, so I wasn't really expecting that I could be in the top 600 finishers for the medal. But when I collected my race kit the day before, I came to know the bib number for men's open half marathon stopped at 800+.

Which was why I was pretty excited and happy and all joyful that I might be able to get it after all. So I ran. And ran. And slowly paced down. And the ankle started hurting. But I still pushed on. Then the thigh started to hurt. I reached 9km mark in about 1 hour. That was already halfway across the districts and we were already in Old Klang Road or something.

Then suddenly the phone acted up! The songs stopped short. And I went, "Shit shit shit!" The run got disrupted for a bit as I quickly separated the battery from the phone to avoid another phone-drowning experience. And I ran for... I don't know how long...

But I've finally reached the 14km mark where the sponsor gave out free SIS energy gel or something. Drank it and didn't quite like it. But I suppose it served its purpose. I managed to push myself forward for a couple of kilometers and hit the highway and turn back. That point in time, I still thought I could be able to finish in top 600 you see. There was a whole lot of them half-marathoners behind me.

But alas, when we finally hit the last 5km at Bukit Jalil, where we had to run down some slope and up again into some residential areas and all, things didn't look as positive as it was earlier. The ankle started to hurt on each step forward, and the thigh was stinging. I tried turning the phone back on, it was working as usual. The time on the phone was out, giving me false hope that I was only in the 2nd hour of the half marathon. But reality finally hits. I saw a guy with the bib number 1000, meaning, there are more runners in this category instead of just 800+!

So I gave up running.

The next drink station was, God knows how many kms away. And people started to slow down and walk too. No one was overtaking me anymore. Because everyone else was walking. LOL. We walked a bit. And I tried to jog a bit. But the thigh stings. So I walked again. In the end, "What the hell..." It was already 8.17am, I caught the time on another runner's watch.

It was already 8.17am, meaning I've already reached 2'50"00 anyways. The finisher medals should've been gone by then. And I still have about 2kms to go. I alternated some walks and jogs till the last marshall on the highway. He gave words of encouragement, "last 500meters!"
So I ran. Ran down the slope, pass by some schools, and came face to face with some photographer, posed a smiled while I run. And walah, finally the road in front of the stadium. I continued my pace, passed by another lady photographer and gave her a half smile. "Good job! Good job!" She smiled back.

2 hours 57 minutes after flag off, I finally reached the finishing line. As expected, no more medals in the men's open. There were still about 50 of them medals from what I saw, on the women's open category. Damn. Why do I have a penis?

Collected my finisher's jersey and tried to walk around. The lucky draw already started then. Runners were still coming in. But seeing the medals on other runners' neck, jealousy hit. But somehow, I wasn't really blaming myself for not trying. For once I thought I tried and I didn't get it. Odd, I know. I used to be the type who blamed myself for not getting what I wanted.

Got someone to help me take a photo, and walked with this painful legs towards the car. It felt like forever to finally reach the car. As I was leaving the stadium, runners were still coming in. Not sure which category though, but judging from the color of the numbers, they should be the half marathoners.

Reached home half an hour later, gave myself a pat on the back, "21km is not a short distance Medie..."

But the parents thought otherwise...

Dad: Didn't win anything?

Mum: Cannot run because you're fat already?

=.="

Got me wondered, with this weight of mine, running like this, I would probably get osteoarthritis of the knee by the end of the year. A junior of mine completed her 21km in 2 hours 15 minutes. Another peer completed his in 1 hour 56 minutes. Me? Ahh... Whatever.