My First Full Marathon

My first half marathon was the Putrajaya Night Marathon 2010. My initial target was to do a full marathon during this race but unfortunately my leg was giving me a hard time. I was still in a lot of pain and was too afraid to commit to a full marathon. But I can say that it was indeed a great run. I finished it at 2:29:41.

Then when 27th March came, I did my first Full Marathon in the Energizer Night Race. I could still remember clearly that during the last 2 weeks before the race, it was raining everyday during the evening. So I thought it might be a good race if it rains around 5 or 6pm. However, on that day itself, the sun was shining brightly and it was really hot at 6pm. I never thought that the sun was still up and shining brightly at that hour. I was already sweating profusely even before the start of the race. When the race finally began, I realised it was going to be a tough race as it was difficult to breath and the water at the water station was really warm. Gosh, it was really awful.

I did my first 21km at the normal pace whereby my time was 2:42. However, I think I hit the wall after that. I felt that it took me forever to finish every km. I remembered I walked a lot and every slope to me was a killer and I couldn't run as well. It was then only I realised that running a marathon is not easy at all. Yes, I know I'm silly but then I think one can never imagine how far 42km is until they try to run it. I remembered meeting some people as well while I was running the last 10km. There weren't many people left actually. Initially while I was running at km30, there were still a lot of people at the same pace as me. But soon, there were lesser and lesser people as they all overtook me. Everywhere was just getting quieter. It felt a little like watching Titanic at the end of the scene whereby people were drowning after the ship sank. Initially there were a lot of people screaming for help but after that it became silent. Alright, nobody died in the race but it was just that there were lesser people around me.

And even at the last km, I couldn't run all the way. I still had to walk but when I finally passed the finishing line, I was just soooo glad that it was all over. It felt like eternity. I finished my race with the time of 6:05:28. I can't imagine myself running and walking for 6 hours. Gosh, it was 6 hours. I can sleep for 6 hours but exercising for 6 hours was just crazy. But nothing beats the feeling of crossing the finishing line. And that's probably one of my greatest achievement.

This picture was taken towards the end of the race. I was all soaking wet.

And after that, I just wanted to take picture with the energizer battery and I love the mascot very much.

And here it is, my first finisher t-shirt for my marathon. And this was just the beginning of my marathon. I'm just loving it. Oh ya, I suffered with loads of abrasion (it was hell) and I was limping for the next few days as the injury on my leg was still not recover. But it was sooo worth it. I always believe the saying of 'No Pain, No Gain'.