A Journey to My First Marathon Part 16

The Beautiful Fully Lighted Penang Bridge.

It's Thursday morning. Time to find out whether the calf injury will affect the running and more than 7 months of training will be down the drain. Go to the my usual route where I do my morning run. Getting jitters even before my run. Have to start. Press start on my Garmin watch and here I go. After a few steps, the calf start to cramp. Damn !! Stop and try to massage my calf and hope it will not cramp. Not going to give up so easily. So not me! Try going into a very slow run. Slowly and slowly. The calf is not cramping. Although the slight pain is still there. 1km, 2km, 3km, 4km, still running at a very slow pace. Confidence coming back a bit. With the endorphins kicking in, the pain is getting more bearable. Picking up the pace a bit, 5km, 6km, 7km and 8km. Target achieved. Yup, I could run the 8km although with much a slower pace. Yes, the calf became less painful after a while and I could run the 8km. Can I say I am ready for the marathon ? Nope.

Have to find out if could run with my normal speed tomorrow. Friday morning, back to the same route. This time at my normal speed but this time I did some calf stretches and massages before my run. 1km, 2km, 3, 4, 5, 6km. The blazing sun is out early this morning. Done, although slightly slower than my fastest speed but I could run after that injury. The speed is coming back after 15 days of zero running. Can I say I am ready for the marathon? Nope, again.

The final test, my long run on Sunday morning for 20km. If I could do this long run at my normal speed, then I should be able to do my marathon. Waking up at 5.15am in the morning and started to run at 6am. As usual, I get to be king of the road, running so early in the morning. After 10km, my legs still holding up. Another 10km to go. The weather has turned cloudy and it is really a nice day to run without the hot weather. Take a gel at 10km and continue my run. After skipping long runs for two weeks, this is the real test. Fortunately, the endurance has not dropped. I could still keep running after 10km and the body is feeling great. 15km...16km...20km...20.5km. Yes ! My body is ready. The slight pain in the calf do not pose any problem in the long run. My body can still run the longer distances.

My first marathon I am ready !! Tapering for the next week. Only 12 km for the long run. More than 8 months of training and more than 1,200km from my running log. Have to get myself mentally psyched up for the race and get the pre-race anxiety off my system. Running a marathon is 50% mental that's what they said.  Collecting my bibs and running vest this week. Penang Bridge International Marathon here I come !!

The Final Part of the Marathon Journey....continues...