You’d think having done quite a few long distances before, one would be mentally ready for a 21km run. But you know what? It's not the case at all. I realized yesterday that it’s really no mean feat. That’s why I was so proud of BCT** yesterday and the strength that was demonstrated during the race.
Getting ready in the morning and having my breakfast, I thought to myself several times: Why on earth are you doing this, Janice? You’ve done like three or four 6km in the last few months and one 13km run with BCT and you’re so not ready to go the distance. But BCT powered me on. There’s a certain inspiration in seeing your peers fired up about something, and being part of it feels like an honour.
I must say I feel terrible to have pulled an Andrew and forgot to bring my race tag. When I was almost not allowed into the participant area, my heart sank. I really didn’t want to ruin the race for my teammates – But thank goodness we were able to pull a few distractions and get the show on the road. Now that’s called teamwork J
So anyway, the run…. How did the run go and how did I feel about it?
The first part of the run was well paced, I thought. Despite the three of us weaving in and out of the crowd, we held up strong and it was funny how the music spurred us all on at different points, making us pick up the pace individually. And it was funny how one of us would always mouth ‘slow down, we’re going too fast’. I felt good the first 10km: Steady. Strong. Everything was holding up and my spirits were up. Somewhere along the 12km mark, things started to feel a bit delicate. The aches and pains set in, not in my knees surprisingly but in my lower back. (It’s something that’s been niggling for the past few months and I’ve been meaning to see Dr Low about it.)
But I looked at BCT and Saf had this big smile on her face; her pacing looked strong and she showed no sign of fading on her face. Marcus looked like he was in his element next to Martin, and I had to tell him not to get carried away picking up the pace. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t getting worried about the rest of the race at this point. Only past the halfway point and I felt like I was starting to struggle – Never mind, keep going. Think about it later.
14km, we were still going steady. Martin said we were probably doing an average of 6.40min/km. But uh oh, backache is turning into pain. Never mind, stop and stretch – catch up with them again. Ultra mara Martin is a sweetheart and slows up to make sure I don’t get dropped. I quickly do the usual things to ease the strain and start up again. Once the 15km mark hit, I started doing this more frequently and suddenly I felt like I was stopping more than I was running. Pain was sharp and shooting down my left leg. Dammit, groove has been broken. But look at BCT! Still going very, very strong!
So I decided to be realistic about things and concede defeat first: See you guys at the finish line, I’ll be right behind you. They trotted off in synchronized motion and I watched wistfully as they moved away, both doing funky moves to Pitbull and unknowingly making me laugh as they did so.
Mr adizero man stayed with me. Yes, Martin may have had just two hours kip after Butter Factory but he looked fresh as a daisy. He had probably run to the race site from Newton and he was probably going to run home again after, and he was going at what must have been snail’s pace to him. He also stopped to walk when I had to recover, which must have been frustrating, but it inspired me to think that I must try my best no matter what I was feeling. Sometimes when it got hard and the pain was too sharp, I tried to speedwalk, hoping that this would let Martin jog at least. But Martin being so tall and me being so short, my fast run-walk was his normal walk anyway. Lose. Oh well, we had a good chat and got to know each other a bit better at least J WeeLee tried to zoom in front of us like a madman at one point, and it was nice to see another fellow teammate on the course.
I was so happy when I saw we had only 3km left! Run Janice, run! Come on! OWW…. Dammit. When we pulled into the Padang I thought, I must run lah. So lousy to speed-walk past the finish line. Thankfully, a platoon of army dudes passed and started chanting as they went by. So I followed the rhythm of their team chant in and tried to get my brain to numb the pain. Success! We came into the finish line hand-in-hand and saw BCT waiting for us! They had come in 2hrs35mins, a fantastic first effort for the both of them! I was a full nine or ten minutes behind and slightly gutted not to have shared the moment with them, but I was happy anyway to have made it with my knees intact.
Guys, I am so proud of you for finishing your first race and not even looking like you were tired! Nice one! Thanks for a great first 15km and sorry I wasn’t able to be at the end. But if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have even gotten as far as I did!BCT Rawks!
Special thanks to Martin for spurring me on :)
**Brand Comms Team
excited
happy
accomplished
exhausted