Alhamdulillah syukur..
That would be the first words yang ana akan sebut for this entry. It sum up everything from the day I officially gatal2 join the endurance world in June 2012 until that last Saturday night in Putrajaya. It was truly an amazing experience and surreal to say the least. Why? Because everything went so quickly that I still couldn't believed that I just ran and completed a 21km run after only 3-4 'so-called' months of training!
Seriously guys, I managed to completed my first 10k run only in last June..on a threadmill pulak tuh!!Haha..
Few years ago, if you guys asked me some random question of whether I would join some running event, be it if it's only 5km or 10km, I would've said" What the heck, gila ka? Cukupla me running petang2 for fun" or " Takper2, you go ahead. I'll just continue to jog for my health sake and also to kuruskan badan. And that for me, is already enough. No need to susah2 training and struggling with your own mental and physical''. The end.
But to date, believe it or not, I've collected 3 finisher medals and all was in different categories; 12k, 7k and 21k.In million years I would've never imagined that I could do all these if I didn't clicked that 'Pay' button when I first registered for the PNM2012 event.
And the rest was history..
First 21km in my whole life - 476/1759
The Race
The crowd when we first arrive
As usual, since this is the first 21k race dalam hidup ana, target asal adalah untuk sampai ke finishing line in one piece. Janji satu body cukup kaki and tangan, ana dah bersyukur.
The 21k route - courtesy Tuan Dedeli
If you guys tengok the route tuh, sememangnya penuh dengan hills and the flat surfaces ada only in few places jer from the start until the finishing line. Yerlah, nama pun dah Putrajaya kan. Eventhough all the roads there semua taraf2 highway, tapi mostly yang termasuk dalam route 21k ni semuanya inclinations + flyovers. So, if beforehand tak prepare with hill or speed work, memang agak mencabar jugaklah sebab when ana went through the whole route, every hills/incline confirm akan ada runners yang duk sibuk buat stretching kaki and tangan sbb cramp! Even worst, ada one place tuh, one of the guys siap kena cardiac arrest (siap mata terbeliak!) and all the lady runners yang passed by that guy, semua menjerit2 ala kena histeria sbb cuak tengok mamat tuh. Erkk..
Before the flag-off, I was with other 3 runners i.e. Najmi, Dedeli (TD) and Faizal (refer pics). Tapi lepas jer gun-shot, semua dah start lari ikut pace masing2 and that includes me. Azam di hati nak just maintain pace with one of these guys, tapi because of there were too many runners, I lost sight of them except Tuan Dedeli. Najmi was already ahead of the pack ( I assume he's with 6:00 pace) while Tuan Faizal wanted all of us to go ahead with our own pace since he's at 7:00 pace due to his shin splints injury. (Satu tabik sping untuk Tuan Faizal because even with his injury, he slowly persevere until the finishing line).
So for the first half of the run, ana just follow Tuan Dedeli's pace until the 5th water station (I think at about 10km split) when we bumped into Najmi. He's already slowing down a little bit when me and TD caught up with him. After the water station stop, it was TD's turn to slow his pace a lil bit (post race, dia kata berhenti kejap nak ikat tali kasut). So, from there on, it was me and Najmi to continue side by side with a pace I think at around 6:20 - 6:30. By that time, we've already passed precinct by precinct, one bridge and also flyover by flyovers (TBH, i didn't really care about all those landscapes + buildings..:P).
At the 13km split, i stopped for a while to tie-in my shoelace. Najmi follow suit stopping. I thought he wanted to wait for me but instead he asked for the water bottle that I had in my hand. From there on, i ran on my own after Najmi signalled me to move on (Post race - his leg got cramp).
1km by 1km passed by until the last 3km where I could see a smaller crowd of runners started to climb up the final hills at the Precinct 2 route before entering Precinct 3 for the finishing line. By this time,ana dah bagi up sikit pace to 5:40 - 5:50. Throughout these last 3km, I could somewhat felt that the distance starting to feel too long and torturous. Hahaha...serious lama gila rasa nak abiskan 1km tuh but after one last corner and 1 water station stop, the end and the crowd was already there to be seen. Syukur..
For that last 600m, I've pushed further and gave myself one last kick towards the end at 5:20 pace.
And as the finishing line approaches, somehow tetiba hati rasa emosi sebab after all those 3- 4months penat dan lelah, everything will be rewarded once ana touch that finishing line.
That final 200metres, I couldn't contain anymore. So, out of nowhere mengalir lah jugak airmate lelaki yang mahal (sikit jer lah) ni sebab ana dah terasa sebak sangat2. Lagi2 biler nampak the official clock tu still ticking kat 2hrs 26min, akhirnya dapat jugak merasa complete my HM below 2hr 30min. Debut HM tuh!!..hehe..Lepas jer the timing mat, ana terus sujud syukur. Seriously rasa lega sebab 'mind-barrier' untuk 21k akhirnya dah lepas..
Sebelum berjuang
The trio - Me, Najmi and TD. By this time, kitorang still tgh tunggu Tuan Faizal untuk sampai.
Tuan Faizal with finishing medal - Tabik2!!
And last but not the least, Alhamdulillah termakbul jugak niat di hati utk jumpa brother Ray nih. Sifu and otai nih. He got the 11th placing in the Men's Marathon category.
Boleh follow his Rayzeef blog via my Fellow Bloggers/Runners.
So rakan2, akhir kata untuk entri ni, thanks for all the support. The hardwork will continue for me untuk mencapai darjat full marathoner by next year insyaAllah. For those yang nak start berlari2 tuh, teruskan usaha anda sebab once you got infected with that running bug, the feeling is seriously addictive. ;-).
The finisher medal, running bib and participation cert..yeah!
