Notes:
It's Tuesday and I'm still alive! I have yet to unpack, either, as I have been swamped with work ever since returning yesterday.

Anyway, the marathon; talk about a humbling experience! As you can see, it's not the best finish (worst than my Chicago time) but looking at the bright side, I have that much more leeway to beating it! That being said, I plan to do more marathons. Crazy, huh? I need to train more, though — LOL! Read on if you want to find out…

"What Went Wrong"

1. I drank coffee an hour before my race
To coffee drinkers, this might not seem odd; but I hardly drink coffee. I thought that having a small cup of joe might wake me up — and it did. It gave me the boost to jump off the starting line and run… for 6 miles without stopping! LMAO. That's good if I were only running a 10K but this was a marathon.

2. I didn't follow my walk/run breaksI trained to run every 6 minutes and walk for a minute. Per my post above, I ran for 6 miles continuously, 'drafting' behind the pace leader who ran at about an 11:30-12:00 minute/mile pace. A few steps after the 10K mark, I slowed down to my normal speed but it was too late — I was deflated! Talk about being out-of-shape!

3. My watch diedI partly blame my watch for the whole pace and walking fiasco. I depended on this thing so much during my training that when it failed me during THE marathon, I was, well, lost. It was an hour after I started that I realised I had a mobile phone on me and it had a stopwatch on it >_< D'oh! Anyway, I couldn't reset the darn watch and yah, ended up doing what I did (see #2). Still, I should've brought a backup watch and placed it on the opposite wrist.

4. I carried two water bottlesOne was my 24 fl.oz Gatorade bottle and the other was a pint of bottled water. Again, I didn't train holding two bottles and let me tell you summat — at mile 15, these things weighed as if they were 100 lbs (45kgs)! AHHH. My shoulders and the base of my neck still hurt because of this strain. Stupid me. >_<

5. I gave up too earlyI thought I was so behind, that I resolved myself to finishing it over 6 hours. Guess what? Had I not given up and simply walked miles at a time, I would have made it — and bested my previous time. Again, I'm blaming it on my watch. Well, I should've noted the clock time, as well. I'll keep these in mind.

Those are the main things I can think of for now. Some stats:

ChipTime: 6:26:02
ClockTime: 6:36:15
Pace: 14:44 minutes/mile

Splits:
10k (6.21mi): 1:13:53
Half (13.1mi): 2:52:04
33K (21mi): 4:58:00

This is what my watch looked like the entire 26.2 miles:

FIRST OFF, congratulations to my big sis Annelle. She finished her first evar half-marathon (that's thirteen and 1/10 miles for you running newbs!)

Notes:
As you can see, I have survived. It wasn't bad at all. A slight ache with my left knee but it was fine after the 1st mile. I'd rather have my sis write what happened in the 1/2 marathon cos this was her day but overall, it was not too bad at all. It was nice cos I ran with her all the way and afterwards, my sis told me that had I not ran side-by-side, she would've given up at mile 9! Wheeee! My first “success” story!

Anyway, for any running newbies out there, if she can do it, YOU can do it, too! Seriously, just train though — don't go do what I did (now dubbed the “Irene Training Programme” — named after our friend, Irene, who has the habit of registering and running races with little training! EEP!), especially if it's your first time! Sheryl? OJ? Anyone?

CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN, SIS!

“To finish a marathon is to attain a small piece of immortality.” — Kathrine Switzer, Author/Runner

Notes:
After months of training, getting up early in the morning, running… I finally did it. I completed my second marathon. I'm not going into too much detail as I barely remember the first 20 miles of running. Yah, can you believe that? I was kinda in this 'zone' thingy where I did not feel as fatigued as I should be (or rather, as fatigued as I felt @ Chicago) cos I ran with two great ladies: Bridget and her sis, Angela. It was pretty kewl running in a small group cos you were distracted by the conversation and just generally having a good time and don't realise that you've gone 10, 15, 20 miles! After the 20th mile marker, Bridget said that I still looked strong, so she encouraged me to go ahead and try to beat my “Chicago” time… And I did! Ok, to some faster runners (*ahem* my big sis, Minel — who, kudos to her, had her own personal record, too!) but to me, that's a pretty nice improvement. There's more room for improvement as well and I am happy to say that I am looking forward to my next marathon (TBD, of course).

I'm going to have to do some research now and find out what sort of recovery runs I need to do. I know it's not over yet until I've fully “finished” with some recovery runs but I'm glad that the biggest hurdle passed! I COMPLETED MY 2nd MARATHON! YAY!

Here's some stats for those interested.

Course Elevation:

As you can see, it was NOT a flat course — but guess what? I was able to go through it fairly easily cos of the great pace leader I had — Mrs. Bridget Haga! YOU ROCK, girl!

Ok, so I probably should not even show this cos my time looks dismal, but who cares! It's funny to see when people (e.g., elite runners) finish when I've barely arrived @ the 10 mile mark. LOL! Props again to sis for her PR — she finished at about 4 hours and 34 minutes (her goal was 04:30:00).

p.s.,
My next running event will be the inaugural San Jose 1/2 Marathon. It's only 13.1 miles but I still plan to train for it to achieve a PR.

p.p.s.,
I burned about 2,549 calories for this marathon. LOL. WOW.