i said i wouldn't run on the bridge but i lied

Yup. I lied. Being the bad brother that i am, i ditched my initial plan to attend my brother engagement do and went to penang to revisit the bridge. My justification, the engagement will still take place with or without me around. After all, it's only an engagement, not his wedding.. Hehe.. (saja sedapkan hati)

I went to penang not placing any hope to clock a good time, what more a personal best. I dont even hope for a sub-5 timing. I've been slacking with training with the last LSD being the newton race more than 2 months ago. The target was to only to complete the race injury free and to have have an enjoyable time running on the bridge.

I swear i was salt overdosed prior to and during the race. And i think i was also overhydrated. Not wanting to experience potential cramps, i bloated myself with 3 litres of water diluted with 10 sachets of ors. Feeling that alone was not enough i brought along with myself nuun salt tablet to be consumed while running. And not to forget the customary bananas walloping for instant energy.

I started off steadily with my normal pace. Not too slow and not too fast for sure. I was still good entering the bridge phase and scaling the incline at the middle of the bridge. It was airry and breezy which was divine to me, just like when i ran on the bridge for the first time last year. I was still okay after the u-turn at the far end of the bridge with my pace still intact.

As i strode to scale the incline at the middle of the bridge, it was drizzling which was nice as it gave cooling effect sensation. I hope the drizzle would last till the end of race. Boy, was i wrong. As the full marathoners converged with half marathoners at the middle of the bridge, the drizzle transformed into torrent and i had a whale of a time running cum showering..

It was still raining hard when mr.cramps started saying hi to me. It was when i passed the 26th km marker that i felt minor jolts at my shins muscles. It was still ignorable when i slowed my pace. A few 100 metres away, the real muscle cramps started rearing its ugly heads. Both shins and thigh muscles felt stiff and i was statutorily unable to move. I was literally standing in the middle of thousands of thronging runners waiting to be trampled by them. I managed to make my way to the side of the road. Lucky that i brought a long deep heat lotion tube and applied the lotion on my shins and thighs.

From then on it was a 80% walking – 20% running affair. I was reduced to walking most of the time. To top that, after the bridge phase ended, the full marathoners needed to run a mentally torturing, neverending, stretch. It was so frustrating that while i still had my energy fueling me, my running effort was hampered by mr.cramps. Everytime i lifted my thighs and legs to run, the muscles compacted drastically that it was unbearably painful . I lost track of how many cramps-attack i had as it kept revisiting even when i was walking. That was how bad the cramps attacks were to me. I swear by that time, i have already popped into my mouth 5 nuun tablets but they were frustratingly futile.

I have lost the sense of time, but i knew i would clock more than 5.30 hours as the 5.30 hours pacers passed snail-pacing me. I was still walking when i converged with eager 10km runners. Couldn’t care less, i decided to walk among them as it was still painful to resume running. It was approximately at the last 3 kilometers that pui san called my name to join her with the rest of the runners pacing the 6 hours pacer, choi cc. Strangely, the cramps disappeared and i could run a modest pace. I was pacing alongside zaki yui the last kilometers. We crossed the finishing line together and clocked almost the same timing.

I am glad that i finished the race despite the timing was way off my personal best time (1 hour and 19 minutes). I clocked my personal worst at pbim but learned a very valuable lesson from it. To run a full marathon, one must be fit physically and mentally. Even when one is mentally strong, it wont just jive if one’s physical is unfit. I don’t blame anything else for my unflattering timing, i don’t blame the futile NUUN tablets or the ORS or even the torrential rain (which is believed to be the major cause for the cramps). I put the total blame on myself for slacking off with training which resulted to my unfitness.

InsyaAllah, I will put much effort on training on my next full marathon at Putrajaya Night Marathon which is slated to be on January 2011.

Verdict Full Marathon PBIM10

Timing : 05:46:53 hours

Position: 743

p/s: btw, I am pulling out from Stanchart Singapore. Therefore,  interested, yet to be registered runner may have my bib.

p/p/s: congrats to those who finished PBIM irregardless of categories. Good job! Kudos to those who emerged as finishers with PB.

p/p/p/s: thanks kakjune for the kedai runcit. The sight of you and ijam’s friend alone gave morale boost to RBUs especially the budding FMVs.