This was one of my most ill prepared marathons. I was too busy studying to train. I hadn�t even done my usual jogging for the past few months. I was totally unfit for this marathon. A concerned friend advised against running the marathon. He said it would be dangerous. He meant well and maybe he was right.
But I felt like running. I wanted a break from my studies. Speaking of my studies, this marathon was just two days before my Finance final exam paper. And Finance was one class in which I was struggling. What�s the present value or the future value of this or that? Those things drove me nuts!
My only �training�, if I can even call that �training�, was a slow 4 km jog along the beautiful Kauai Beach on Friday night, less than 48 hours before the marathon. (The coming Sunday morning was the marathon). Crazy, wasn�t I? And guess what? The very next day, my legs were sore! Sore just after a 4 km jog. How can my legs last 42 km? It would take more than a Hawaiian miracle to pull this one off.
As expected, the run was a struggle. I prodded along slowly most of the way. Surprisingly, it wasn�t my unfit legs that were giving me the most problems but my stomach! I felt extremely hungry at about the 30 km mark. I had hit the �wall� without knowing it. At that time, I still hadn�t even heard of the �wall�. So without carbo-loading, my carbo reserves were quickly depleted.
I watched in envy as some of the other runners ate bananas. Wish I could have just one. As I ran along a Safeway supermarket, how I wish I could just go in and buy something to eat. But I did not carry any money. I had to summon the much-needed energy from somewhere!
So I struggled till I crossed the finished line after 5.5 hours. This was my slowest marathon so far, and was one hour slower than my last marathon in 1988.
But I was glad that I had completed the race. At the back of my mind was always my friend�s advice not to run. So being alive was a bonus. But then again, being alive meant that I had to face the dreaded Finance exam in two days� time. |
