A Journey to My First Marathon Part 15

This reminds me of my LSDs on Sunday morning

Yes ! I finished my 32km. One km shorter than I planned but it is enough for my longest run. Technically, I would say I am ready. Following my training plan, the next two weeks should be tapering weeks then the full marathon on the 3rd week. However, I have changed the plan due to my overseas trip this weekend and the whole of next week. Should have done my longest run later but just have to alter the plan to suit my schedule.

Probably will squeeze another 30km on the weekend back from holidays if my body can hold up to run such a long distance after the holiday. Keeping my fingers crossed.  Hope to do some shorter distances during the trip just to throw in some mileage. But it is good to give the body a rest since it is my first marathon. These two long runs, 30km and 32 km, is really tough. Different parts of my body and legs start to feel the pain. And I have to virtually run through the pain to complete the distance. And you will definitely limp after the run. I feel completely wasted after the run. These 30km and above runs are really brutal !

For the 32km, the weather has been kind to me. It was raining the day before and weather was much cooler running on a Sunday morning at 4.50am. Again, it is late considering having to run 4 hours or more. At least got my prayers answered as I have a kind weather on Sunday. The run took 4 hours 30 mins and not including two longer walk breaks. One is walking back to the car to get my water bottle and taking a gel after running for about 22km. The second walk break is after 27km where I have to walk to the Petronas petrol station for a pee break, Milo break and also a bottle of 100plus.

I put on my kick butt music for the last 5km and finished the 32 km. The strange part is I run the final 5km the strongest of the last 20km run. This make me realise that my body can actually hold up to it even after 32km. But after the running 32km, the stretching part is important. This is to ease the pain on the legs. I usually take a glass of low fat chocolate milk after long runs. This recovery part is also very critical. And I did what I didn't do after my 30km the last time, I iced my feet. Just put ice into a bucket of water and put both feet in. This is reduce to the soreness or inflammations and it definitely help. The limping is mainly due to the ankle pain. It is like you have sprain your ankle. And I have knee pain which I never had before. I also felt lower back pain after running 23km during the training.

For all runners, I think one of our biggest fears are injuries. No matter how much training you do and if you are injured, you can say bye bye to the race. Like everybody used to say "Always to listen to our body". So definitely, no running for me in the next two days. Will do a bit of swimming which I know is ideal to heal my ankle injury and weight training.

After I have taken my late breakfast, I just lie down on the settee put both of my feet up and just laze around and watch TV and take short naps for the rest of the morning. I recovered after about 2 to 3 hours rest and back to my energetic self for the rest of the day although I am still limping after that. And  by 10pm, the tiredness started again since I have wake up at 4am and ran for 4 and a half hours. So bedtime by 11pm and I am preparing to oversleep on the Monday morning for recovery. Thank God I have more flexible work hours.

“I run because long after my footprints fade away, maybe I will have inspired a few to reject the easy path, hit the trails, put one foot in front of the other, and come to the same conclusion I did: I run because it always takes me where I want to go.”  ― Dean Karnazes, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

Will have to miss a blog post next week due to my holidays......but the Marathon Journey still continues...