Of NB20 KM Race Eve Anxiety and Report - Regular Training Pays!

It normally occurs to me to experience race eve anxiety the night before the actual race takes place. While my mind normally would get too preoccupied with what is gonna happen during the race day, my body would feel twitchy and becomes restless. Anxiousness and excitement normally overwhelm me that it is very difficult for me to catch sleep.. In effort to catch sleep I would toss my body to the right and the left side of the bed countlessly.. And even if I manage to fall into slumber, it would be interrupted many times that I will always check the time for the fear that I might oversleep passing the time that I have set to wake up. For this NB30km race, it was no different from other races, actually it got worse. I didn’t get any sleep at all!

I just couldn’t contain the excitement anymore and left Putrajaya for Padang Merbuk at 5am. I drove to Bukit Aman and reached its parking area around 5.30am. Met a fellow runner there and later performed Subuh prayer at Masjid Bukit Aman. We later rushed Padang Merbok as there were 5 minutes left before the 20km category participants were about to let off. Sharp 6.30 the race started and at that very time I could feel the sleepiness creeping in.

I started off well and managed to keep pace with much faster runners. The only problem that I struggled with was not lethargy or fatigue but it was the sleepiness that I really hoped to dissipate quickly. I felt like a zombie while running except that I was not in slow moving mode like a real zombie would be. After approximately 5 km of psyching my mind up against the heavy eyelids, the sleepy feeling was gone and I felt I was at the top of my game.

It was during this run that I found myself loving the hills. I kinda know how to tackle hills this time around. Thanks to Adination Runners running sessions where I had the chance to observe one of the seasoned runner tackling hilly route effortlessly. And I kinda loving this new discovery more as I managed to overtook many runners when plodding uphill. Throughout the run I tried maintaining my pace, speed and strive and after 1 hour and 43 minutes-ish I crossed the finishing line.

After 2 half marathons outings (PBIM and SCSM), I kinda inspired to renew my personal best, they were 2hours6mins-ish.. I have always targeted to do a sub 2 hours time for the next half marathon. Judging from this race’s time where the race distance are 2 km short of a half marathon’s, I estimate that if the distance is to be extended to another 2 kilometres ,and if I maintained the pace and the speed, I would have recorded my PB just below 2 hours!

This only proves that regular training really pays.. All my evening and weekend runs that I toil finally bear its fruits and really worth it!
So now I am anxious and eagerly counting days for next half marathon that is 3 weeks away from now – PUTRAJAYA NIGHT MARATHON on 10th February 2009. I seriously hope that I get enough sleep in the process.. :)

* actual distance is 19.36km

* i found the finisher medal hideous. Dont u guys find the same?