My 1st Full Marathon in Kuching Marathon 2015

Finally, stop procrastinating; and penned down my humble journey toward my 1st full marathon on 16th August 2015.

Been thinking long and hard whether I should attempt FM in my life but when the opportunity presented itself, I gladly accepted the challenge and register for FM in Kuching when registration open in January 2015. I have so much fond memories of Kuching; to run my 1st FM here bring back so much nostalgia to me.

Training
I am such a lazy runner that I don't really have a training program even after I decided I will run for FM. Luckily, I have a mentor a.k.a. Elvin that keep on nagging me almost every weeks to run during weekends. Even so, I manage to find some reasons to not run on some weekends ( I want to sleep :'( ). Special thanks to Avis, Ana, Hui Jane and TPRC gang for running with me all this months.

 TPRC gang
Mileage
Jan : 42km
Feb : 40km
Mar : 75km
Apr : 36km
May : 78km
Jun : 108km
Jul : 99km + hike Apek & Nuang
Aug before race : 36km



                                                                             
Pre-race
Reach Kuching on Friday to collect the bib and start to have pre-race jitter. Meet up with my Singapore colleague and roommate, Eason and together we prepare for our FM; mine's 1st, his 2nd. From the start, I already know that I am ill-prepared. I never taken any power gel during training; my attire are just a simple running short with my favourite LYN running shirt. He bought some gels for me so I decided to bring 4 in case I feel hungry and need extra energy.

Raceday
Not able to sleep because I am too stressed and excited anticipating this run. Forcing myself to bed at 10.00pm and yet, I still looking at my phone at midnight. Manage to finally sleep but then awoke at 1.30am. Eason also woke up at the same time and because of his previous experience, he know that we need to eat before the run. I force myself to eat 15 pieces of Tiger biscuit. By 2.15am, we are ready to walk to Padang Merdeka. And I still need my coffee fix so I went to 7-11 to get my cold Nescafe.

Reaching Padang Merdeka, most of the familiar faces are there. The fast-legs from LYN running group a.k.a. William, Sharon & my last year roommate, Tea Chua are already ready. Everyone look excited and I am so happy to see them there. LYN running group is the catalyst to my running life and without them, I don't think I will ever attempt FM. And for the first time since I graduated from UNIMAS in 2005, I finally meet my best friend at that time, Calvin Sim. Although we only manage to exchange pleasantries for a while, I am glad we finally meet again.

3.00am finally approaching and I get ready to the most dreaded event in my life. 'Bang' and I start to run. In my mind, there are few things running all the time. Due to the fact that I am really a slow and inconsistent runner, I have my contingency plan in placed. If I am not able to finish this run within 6 hours, at least I must better my last year HM time of sub2hrs30mins. 

My plan are as below if I ever manage to follow:
1st 10km - pace of 7 mins and below
2nd 10km - pace of 7.5 mins and below
3rd 10km - pace of 8.5 mins and below
Remaining - pace of 9 mins and below

Running through the beautiful city of Kuching, I do not encounter any problem at all for the first half of the run. Along the way, saw a few runners wearing LYN shirt and this bring smiles to me. Approaching HM distance, I realise that I manage to beat my old time and suddenly, all my burden is lifted. I also realise that I can actually do a sub5hrs30mins and not sub6hrs. I start to get hungry so I had my 1st power gel. By 30km, I suddenly feel more hungry; legs start to feel pained and I took my 2nd gel. Walking for a while, suddenly SharkWin charge from behind and call me out to ask me whether I hit the wall. Realising that I probably is, I told him that my aim is sub5hrs30mins so he ask me to follow him because he is doing the same pace. Along the way, I took another 2 gels to replace my loss of energy. Following him all the way to the finish line, I manage to complete my run in 5hrs29mins. What a relieve when I saw the clock at my last 50m.

Final thought
To be frank, I am thankful to be able to finish my VFM without any major issues. To run a FM is in my bucket list so at least I can tick this off. My 2nd FM is coming in another month at SCKLM and I know I will run slower this time. Anyway, I am happy to just run because when I am running, I can finally lose myself and just be me. 



My Uni mate, Calvin









Comments

Alan Gwee said…
Hi Yong Wee. I am Alan Gwee. Happy to see you again.
March 27, 2016 at 9:12 PM
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