adidas Auckland Marathon 2006
29th October 2006. The Big Day.
My gear. Clima-lite Tshirt, race number bib and race transponder, registration confirmation email, CHC-AKL flight boarding pass, gear bag.
My motivation to run is:
My buddy Rebecca and my friends Weihao, Junren and Micha are edging me on in Christchurch. So is my buddy Hobbit in Leeds, UK. This one's for you guys!! Rock on!
Race Expo. Where we collected our race numbers and t-shirts.
RACE DAY
The ferries bringing us to the start point.
Me on the ferry to the start point. As u can see, it's still dark outside.. it's 4:30am!
Millions of cups prepared at the start point for the runners.
Transponder on my ankle. This is the device that clocks when I pass the start and finish line.. so they can record my official timing! :)
Pre-race LirenWell, I didn't get any shots of the start line, or the starting mass of runners or any shots during the race. For the photos that the professional photographers took of me.. click HERE.
Here let me give you a km-by-km analysis of the race I ran:
Start - 2km
Doing good, breathing regularly, legs doing ok.
2km - 4km
A lot of uphills. Died. Cos i have never experienced such an excruciating pain in the area between my foot and my knee (what do u call that area?) before. It was crazy, i tell ya. Especially when I was going uphill. And so, at about the 3km mark, my dream of running the whole race without stopping evaporated. :( Never mind, push on.
5km
Water stop. Desperately needed to pee at the Portaloos, but there was a queue of about 4 people. But when one's gotta go, one's gotta go. Queued up for my turn, but to my HORROR there were tonnes of people running past the loo at the same time. Suddenly, I dropped to the back of the pack.
5km - 6km
Feeling darned good, after the pee. Course was getting flatter, and I just kept going. Never felt better running. It felt like i could go on forever, which I did.
At this point, I must talk about this girl whom I tried to shake off. She's quite big-sized, prolly abt 100kg? And she wore white, so she looked even bigger. The thing is, I thought I could overtake her pretty easily, but I swear! She just kept appearing in front of me!! Like I would think I'd left her behind and I look up.. she's right in front!! I must give her credit. She's obviously not very fit, cos the max distance she ran at one time was about 100- 200m, but she kept going and going and going.
And there were other 70 year old aunties whom I thought I could make them eat my dust. But they made me smell their fart instead. These women are fast! And they're faster than me.. even when they're just WALKING.. u noe.. like those power walkers.. walk damn fast and need to shake-butt kind.. ZAI!
6km -14km
Feeling really good, just kept going on and on and on. Felt like I could run forever, until I hit the Auckland Harbour Bridge and we had to run onto it. It was another super long uphill. Not that it was very steep, but the uphill was long. I decided to walk until the uphill was over. By this time, the excruciating pain between my foot and knee had miraculously disappeared. :)
14km - 17km
It was getting tougher. This was longer than what I had trained. In training I had only hit up to 13km, so this was starting to be a bit beyond my physical limit. I kept going, and at one point I was running on rage and rage alone. My mind was raging against my body. 'Liren!! Stop making excuses! Stop telling yourself you can't do it! Go Go Go Go Go Go Go!!' I was so angry at myself and I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing. The rage was surging.
17km - 18km
The rage didn't outlast the pain in my legs. Argh. I stopped again. Ran for about 700-800m every km, and walked the remaining 200m.
18km - 19km
My body couldn't take it anymore. Walked a bit, ran a bit. The stitches started to come in. PAIN. PAIN. PAIN. For me, stitches are a sign that I'm going further and my body can't take it anymore. I tried stretching the way Michael told me to.. like put both arms above your head. Nope didn't work. Then I remembered that Tony Leong of AETC had once told me on a Battalion Run that when u have stitches, try to breathe regularly. So i did. My breathing had become irregular as I had focused too much on putting one step ahead of the other. The stitches got better, and I moved on.
19km - 20km
This must have been the longest km in the whole race. I was just dying to hit the magic '2X km'
20km - 21.1km
Weehee!! I finally hit the magic '2X' and i told myself 'Liren, u must keep going. Keep going so you can finish the race by 930 and collect ur race pack so u can call Reb and tell her the good news before she goes to church. GO GO GO GO GO GO GO!' I pushed and I pushed. The legs were giving way. But I saw the crowds lining the streets. Cheering and shouting. Pushing me to go further. I just ran and ran and ran and ran until there was no more feeling in my legs or my mind. I knew I had to smile for the cameras at the finish line, but no smile came. And I kept grunting and making funny noises cos I was in such pain.. hahaha.. and everyone kept staring at me! :p
I saw the magic word 'FINISH' and sprinted for it at the last stretch.
Here let me give you a km-by-km analysis of the race I ran:
Start - 2km
Doing good, breathing regularly, legs doing ok.
2km - 4km
A lot of uphills. Died. Cos i have never experienced such an excruciating pain in the area between my foot and my knee (what do u call that area?) before. It was crazy, i tell ya. Especially when I was going uphill. And so, at about the 3km mark, my dream of running the whole race without stopping evaporated. :( Never mind, push on.
5km
Water stop. Desperately needed to pee at the Portaloos, but there was a queue of about 4 people. But when one's gotta go, one's gotta go. Queued up for my turn, but to my HORROR there were tonnes of people running past the loo at the same time. Suddenly, I dropped to the back of the pack.
5km - 6km
Feeling darned good, after the pee. Course was getting flatter, and I just kept going. Never felt better running. It felt like i could go on forever, which I did.
At this point, I must talk about this girl whom I tried to shake off. She's quite big-sized, prolly abt 100kg? And she wore white, so she looked even bigger. The thing is, I thought I could overtake her pretty easily, but I swear! She just kept appearing in front of me!! Like I would think I'd left her behind and I look up.. she's right in front!! I must give her credit. She's obviously not very fit, cos the max distance she ran at one time was about 100- 200m, but she kept going and going and going.
And there were other 70 year old aunties whom I thought I could make them eat my dust. But they made me smell their fart instead. These women are fast! And they're faster than me.. even when they're just WALKING.. u noe.. like those power walkers.. walk damn fast and need to shake-butt kind.. ZAI!
6km -14km
Feeling really good, just kept going on and on and on. Felt like I could run forever, until I hit the Auckland Harbour Bridge and we had to run onto it. It was another super long uphill. Not that it was very steep, but the uphill was long. I decided to walk until the uphill was over. By this time, the excruciating pain between my foot and knee had miraculously disappeared. :)
14km - 17km
It was getting tougher. This was longer than what I had trained. In training I had only hit up to 13km, so this was starting to be a bit beyond my physical limit. I kept going, and at one point I was running on rage and rage alone. My mind was raging against my body. 'Liren!! Stop making excuses! Stop telling yourself you can't do it! Go Go Go Go Go Go Go!!' I was so angry at myself and I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing. The rage was surging.
17km - 18km
The rage didn't outlast the pain in my legs. Argh. I stopped again. Ran for about 700-800m every km, and walked the remaining 200m.
18km - 19km
My body couldn't take it anymore. Walked a bit, ran a bit. The stitches started to come in. PAIN. PAIN. PAIN. For me, stitches are a sign that I'm going further and my body can't take it anymore. I tried stretching the way Michael told me to.. like put both arms above your head. Nope didn't work. Then I remembered that Tony Leong of AETC had once told me on a Battalion Run that when u have stitches, try to breathe regularly. So i did. My breathing had become irregular as I had focused too much on putting one step ahead of the other. The stitches got better, and I moved on.
19km - 20km
This must have been the longest km in the whole race. I was just dying to hit the magic '2X km'
20km - 21.1km
Weehee!! I finally hit the magic '2X' and i told myself 'Liren, u must keep going. Keep going so you can finish the race by 930 and collect ur race pack so u can call Reb and tell her the good news before she goes to church. GO GO GO GO GO GO GO!' I pushed and I pushed. The legs were giving way. But I saw the crowds lining the streets. Cheering and shouting. Pushing me to go further. I just ran and ran and ran and ran until there was no more feeling in my legs or my mind. I knew I had to smile for the cameras at the finish line, but no smile came. And I kept grunting and making funny noises cos I was in such pain.. hahaha.. and everyone kept staring at me! :p
I saw the magic word 'FINISH' and sprinted for it at the last stretch.
2:57:34!!!!!!!!
I had made it!!!! Under my target of 3 hours! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEEHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I tell ya, the best service that day was they had volunteers who kinda knelt down in front of us to help to take off the transponders from our ankles. THE BEST. I swear, at that point, I SO couldn't bend down to take it off myself. My whole body would've cramped up like shit. Hahaha...
Collected my gear bag, called Reb and told her to news! Then I msged WH, JR and Micha. Also, I got a 'all-the-best' sms from my buddy Hob in Leeds! Weeeee! It made me so happy! All those little things made up for not having someone at the finish line to give me a 'finisher-hug' I guess. :)
I tell ya, the best service that day was they had volunteers who kinda knelt down in front of us to help to take off the transponders from our ankles. THE BEST. I swear, at that point, I SO couldn't bend down to take it off myself. My whole body would've cramped up like shit. Hahaha...
Collected my gear bag, called Reb and told her to news! Then I msged WH, JR and Micha. Also, I got a 'all-the-best' sms from my buddy Hob in Leeds! Weeeee! It made me so happy! All those little things made up for not having someone at the finish line to give me a 'finisher-hug' I guess. :)
Post-race Liren.
I think I lost some weight there. Three cheers to the Hansons Lane Fan Club! And the Leeds branch of the Hansons Lane Fan Club too! :)
Oh by the way. I found out subsequently that my official finishing time is 2hr 55mins 22s. Not bad eh. :)
I think I lost some weight there. Three cheers to the Hansons Lane Fan Club! And the Leeds branch of the Hansons Lane Fan Club too! :)
Oh by the way. I found out subsequently that my official finishing time is 2hr 55mins 22s. Not bad eh. :)
0 comments:
Post a Comment