I Bonked!

I did an abysmal run on Saturday night. It took me 2hours and 5minutes to finish a 15.5K race!

I had planned to just bum around on Saturday so as to “conserve” energy for the night race. But it was not to be. On Thursday, we received a note from Raimie’s school stating that there is Saturday replacement class that he needs to attend.

Zaini and I will usually wait around (“lepak”ing at Bangsar actually) until Raimie finishes Saturday classes instead of returning home and going out again to fetch him. That Saturday was no different. After sending Raimie to school, we drove over to Lake Garden. No running, but we walked around and Zaini accompanied me to recce a route I was interested in, but not sure where it leads to. So we walked the “Bird Park” loop together.

I figured that a walk would be nice since my head felt heavy since Thursday and was hoping a walk around the park would clear it. What I got was a case of hay fever though. Started sneezing and nose turned into a faucet, dripping everytime I looked down. Nice…

Wasn’t worried much about it though. I figured I just pop in a couple of aspirins and with a quick nap, I’d feel better. I usually do anyway, so I did just that upon reaching home. Nap, woke up, made some sandwiches for the boys and the showered before getting all prepped-up for the night race.

The day was bright and sunny when we made our move to Sepang International Circuit at around 6.00pm. Such a hot evening, after overcast & cooling morning.

Getting to Sepang International Circuit was a breeze. Ample parking. Support crews were very helpful navigating cars. Actually everything was efficiently smooth at Energizer Night race. Non-existent queue to collect the headlamps because it was done really quick. I have to say, awesome job by the organizer for this race! Everyone helping out in it deserves a big pat on the back! Great job guys! Smooth sailing from start till finish. I wish I could say the same about my running.

Starting the race, it took me 30secs to pass the starting line. I can’t stand the heat running with the packs so I guess I wasted a bit more energy running on the outside track (read: more distance) to feel the breeze. Then, we headed outside the circuit. I did the 5.5K loop around the circuit on pace, did it 30sec faster than target as a matter of fact and was feeling OK.

I had this game plan. Run conservative on flat ground, try even-effort pace (read: shuffle along) the hilly parts and let loose on the downhills. It worked on the track but things went haywire after that.

The cheering crew was awesome especially at the “mist arch”. It was really nice to run through the cooling mist and fun to high-five’ing and giving thumbs-up (and waste lots of energy… kakaka) with the volunteers there. Happy lah, got people shouted, “looking good leng-loi”; even if it wasn’t meant for me specifically! LOL

Managed to do my run according to plan for the first two inclines (the steep one kinda reminded me of PICC hill) but then I got stomach cramp. At first I thought it was just side-stitches so I decided to run through the pain. But the whole middle abdomen started to pain. Oh yes! I forgot to mention, I was purging a bit and had to visit the loo twice before the start of the race. Almost had an accident pooping in my pants, actually. Eewww! Zaini said so when I told him about it before running to find the nearest toilet. Kakaka

No biggie, I thought. I always needed to visit the loo often before a race anyways.

Back to the race - after the tummy cramp hit me, the run wasn’t fun anymore. I tried to run it off, but it never went away. It cramped even until I finished my run. It cramped up while I was sitting in the car. No good. Ugh.

I don’t know how many inclines we had to face that night but it felt like all we did was going uphill and downhill for eternity! @.@

My slow, steady run turned into a shuffle and then turned into a walk. At first I took comfort that I was still passing others while I speed-walked but the comfort wasn’t for long, because speed-walking turned into “it’s hard to even walk” kinda walk. I forced myself to shuffle along when we reach flat areas and to push it a bit going downhill but then, it was rather dangerous to breeze through the downhills because of all the human traffic that were slowing down.

I was too busy cramping up anyway, to even want to bother weaving in and out of the people in front of me so I just followed the rest and walked here and there, while shuffling when I felt like it. The good thing about the run at the time was, I stopped coughing and sneezing altogether. Ah well… you win some, you lose some. Hu~

By this time, I didn’t even bother to check my timing, my splits or my pacing. All I wanted to do was to get to the finish line in one piece!

I didn’t stop at the water stations that littered the course (they had it every 2K which was very generous) until the last two because I brought along my own bottle. At the last two stations, I relished the cool sponge and literally took a shower with it! LOL Yup, I made myself soaking wet top to bottom with the cold, wet sponge distributed. I wasn’t the only one doing it! The sponges – instead of throwing them aside, I stashed them between my shoulder straps (both of them) because I thought of Raimie and his arts & crafts projects. He needs sponges. Why waste when I can recycle these sponges? Right?

I think I reached the 12K mark in 1hour 40min+. We were already entering the circuit again so I figured I should try and shuffle faster to the finish line as I can see it from where I was at. But horror! Despite looking like it was near (because of the looping), the finish line was still 3K away and I wasn’t feeling like I could continue running for 3K. It was shuffle, walk, shuffle until I reached the grandstand area at the last K.

Tried to push a bit and did a semblance of a run for that final kilometre. Zaini, my ever dependable hubby took some shots of me pushing towards the finish line. It did look nice on photos finishing off “strong” but I wish I was strong throughout the run.

Gone through the finish line 2hours 5minutes after I started (which was 20minutes off my “ambitious” target time), was handed a bottle of mineral water & my certificates of participation along with words of congratulations. Then walked off to get my goodie bag which contained not only my finisher medal but also a cool black Energizer t-shirt and snack pack. Zaini likes the t-shirt it seems. ^^

While plenty of the runners still lingered around the pit-stop area, I made my way out of the circuit. Saw a few runners crab-walked up the stairs going out from the tunnel. Ahahah…

The first thing Zaini said when he saw me was “I thought you said you should be finished in 90minutes? You took way too long. It was more than 2 hours!” What a welcome greeting!

I usually felt pretty happy after a race, regardless of the timing I did but I was feeling really down after this race. Zaini opined that it was due to the fact that this time I cared too much about my timing and pacing. I guess so.

But then, I wasn’t happy that I was unable to run (slowly or otherwise) for the whole distance. I guess I would’ve felt better if I can just shuffle along instead of having to resort to walking. Uphill or otherwise.

Lesson learnt: more hill repeats for me. Lots of it. What I’m doing now is simply isn’t enough. But of course, I have to start running and training again.

At the moment, I am not feeling like I want to run anymore. I just want to sulk in a corner and be miserable for days.

Actually, I spent the whole Sunday sleeping and clearing the headache & flu away. Am I feeling much better? Not really.

Do I want to go out and run? Not really.

I bonked. I need some time I guess before I return to running again. Boo!