KL is my 10th full marathon. I only realised it now.
We woke up at 0230 Hr. Prepared ourselves. Vincent and I went to collect our breakfast packets from the lobby which we had requested before we slept to be packed for us. Ate our food, got into our gear and off we go. We were careful not to wake Ben up as he was doing the half which starts at 0615Hr.
The start point was at Merdeka Square, a short walk from our hotel. The place was already filled with runners eager to start the race. Some of the elite ones were doing warm up runs to kick start their engines. We gathered around the start line as time approached 0500 Hr. Saw many familiar faces. Suddenly, it started drizzling. We stood close to each other to shield each other from the cold breeze. We started the race with our running tops wet from the rain. The ground was slippery. Water puddles formed at certain spots on the ground and we had to avoid stepping into them.
I tried to stay close to ail during the run. The weather was still cool at this point. The route was mainly along the roads or expressways of KL. As we ran past, cars would zoom past us. Luckily there were safety barriers separating us from the vehicles.
My body has taken its toll from the past few runs. Its telling me. Its showing signs to tell me. I was feeling uncomfortable maintaining the pace. At 20km, I lost ail. She went straight ahead after a water station. She is somebody that dont wait. I tried to catch up. Finally managed to catch her at 23km. However, at 28km I lost her again as she speed forward. I knew my body could not take it anymore. My body was going on strike to tell me it was in trouble.
For the remaining distance, I was going at a very slow pace. It did not help that the weather was slowly turning warm. The upslope at the 35km at the expressway was not welcomed. At the 38.5km mark, we had to make our way up a hill. At that point I just switched to walking up the hill. This was a very demoralising point of the run. In my mind I was contemplating to drop out. I have had bad moments during races before. I had hit the wall during races before. Yet, this was the first time I was thinking of the words "give up". I dont understand why. Luckily, there were no race officials nearby. If not, I might have really approached them and said I wanted to give up. Would I really do it? I dont know.
Vinc caught up with me and gave me a slight push on the back. It did provided me with some encouragement to keep going. "Its almost finishing!" I told myself. Vinc asked me if my legs were ok. Everybody knew I had complained that my left shin were feeling pain the past 2 weeks. I just nodded my head back at him. I just want to get this race finisheded.
Vinc overtook me as made off for the finish line. My pace was slowed to almost a walk. The last stretch around the city streets was a winding road of torture.
Biting the bullet, I made it through the finish line. Jo was there to take photographs for us. She seems to be able to sense my disappointment. She tried to cheer me up by telling me dont bother too much about the timing and there are more races in the future.
After a while of waiting, Brian also returned. He turned to me and patted me on my back and told me I did a good run. I was feeling weird as why he only said that to me. I figured he must have seen my struggling state out there on the road and thought I must be feeling like shit now.
Really thank you brian and jo for the encouragement. I will pick myself up. This was a bad race for me. But I would not be beaten. I will be back to my previous running conditon. And I will be back stronger!
Medal bite!!!
Gun Time: 04:42:36
Net Time: 04:42:02
Placing: 236
311km back to JB.
178km.
102km.
22km more to JB.
No more major races coming up in the next few weeks. Time to rest the body and recuperate.
