Hi everyone,
As you might have expected, I have taken some time to write
about my first marathon experience especially for those who are interested to
get started. I will first off start with the event itself. Borneo International Marathon is a marathon competition organized annually since its first
installment in 2011. Ever since then, the number of participants have grown
increasingly steady and this year alone welcomed nearly 5, 000 runners from all
walks of life and from all over the world. Unfortunately for this event, it has
gone through some uncanny journey as it was postponed twice this year, first
due to the country’s general election, and secondly due to an unidentifiable
rumours in relation to the election itself. Imagine the frustration the
organizer and participants have gone through, knowing that they have worked and
trained so hard prior to the race only to have it postponed. TWICE. Must be brutal.
I salute the organizers for keeping it together as well, and
for staying true in what they believe in. That’s some true sportsmanship. If
you want to see how they do their PR, you can check out their timeline on the Facebook Page here. Well done!
As it was for me, I was one of the participants that
actually trained enough prior to my 10KM, before its first date. I woke up
every morning around 5AM for my 2 – 4KM run before work. I used to do it
everyday, only to learn my legs can get quite tired if it was done daily, so um
okay I tell myself, let’s do it on alternate days, and it worked well for me! I
had better stamina, and my legs weren’t giving up on me so easily. So I stick
to the routine for almost 3 months, and I had Mt. Kinabalu coming up before
this run, so you can say I did very little cardio for both these events separately. What
was I thinking enrolling in all these events? NO IDEA. I JUST HAD TO TELL MYSELF, LIFE IS MORE THAN
WHAT I’M USED TO.
After Mt. Kinabalu which was in June, I died. It took my
body 2 weeks to completely recuperate. And another 2 weeks to start of my daily
routine again. That means I only started running again only in July, about a
month before the 10KM. And for every run I did, I could never push myself past
further 5KM so I figured I was doomed. 10KM means doubling what my body is so
comfortable at!
Yesterday’s date for the run seems like a challenge because
the weeks before that also were raya. And you know what that means! Clean
eating and higher metabolism meals seem impossible! Not only was it the food,
it was the ample of houses to visit either, one after another. Okay, this is a
typical Malaysian thing, filling ourselves with festive excuses L So eventually, I did
ONE run a week before the actual day. /gulp
The night before the run I had an engagement party to attend
to. So I joined the bandwagon of carb-loading enough the night before with
rice, proteins and stuff. This was my first marathon so I had no idea what carbloading
can do for me but my common sense tells me that this could be another way of
cheating energy into your body (instead of really having it in you). Some use
it for insulin spike, while some use it to stock up basic energy. Once you have
energy and complex carbs (with sugar) in your body, your brain will distract
you less with the loss of water and sodium in your body throughout the run. Especially
for long distance runners, losing a lot of sweat means losing a lot of sodium
in your body. When your body loses its tank (fuel) this is when you are put into
a mental endurance test, this is when your mind does wonders for your body, it’s
like your mind can cheat your body to continue.
Daren and Chris’ kickoff was at 5AM so I dropped them off
first. Some friends invited me over to run with them, but frankly, I wasn’t
sure I could do it. True enough, the moment we kicked off, I had to learn the
hard way that training can never teach you “the crowd”. See when you train
alone, you can run at YOUR pace with minimal distraction, but when you run with
two thousand other runners around you, your momentum will be screwed. I
panicked the first 3KM, and was lulling and stopping every few hundred metres
(which was SO BAD). When I saw the 3KM mark, I stopped and told myself – you are
not running for anyone here, you are running for yourself, fuck their pace, do
yours.
And I did.
I started afresh after the 3rd KM, and went into
a zone where no one around me existed, not even the cheers, not even the crowd,
I followed my slow but sure pace for myself and it worked wonders. After the 3rd
KM I paced and did not stop till the finishing line and made personal best
time!
The greatest lesson I get from these training and doing
amateur marathon eventually was – how I needed to know my body well. I needed
to know whether carb loading worked for me, or whether I could listen to justin
bieber while running (apparently I could) or whether I should stick to the wear
that I’m used to instead of changing to the BIM’s official shirt like everyone else. We take the
signals our body give us for granted until we are put to get to know them the
hard way :) I think once we get to know our body well enough, we can be in control.
Love,
Jacqueline Rowena @ Jacqkie.
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