Last year I clocked 7 hours 43 minutes on the Penang Bridge Full Marathon. FULL MARATHON OK? I wouldn’t call it a marathon coz I walked the remaining 6 hours. A walkathon sounds more befitting. No thanks to lack of training and oh ya, did I mention it was my virgin marathon? As the Pekenas would say it, “Sudah pecah virgin la~~” kekeke. This year I intend to finish it under 6 hours ;)
Running for a marathon isn’t actually a walk in the park (no pun intended). Those of you who frequent kennysia.com would probably know about Kenny’s adventures in the 2006 KL International Marathon and 2007 Penang Bridge Marathon. Seriously for someone his size, its not easy. Even for me its a huge task. I salute you Kenny Sia!
One of my preparations this year would be to read up more on training tips. And guess what I stumbled upon? This article called How To Run A Marathon And Still Have Time for Sex – By Rob Loughran. It was featured in Trail Runner Magazine. If you are interested in the article you can click here. Another good site I found is Running Times. They have various training levels from 5K run to the hardcore bad-ass 42k runs. If you really want to learn to run, read up on the materials there.
I found that your running shoes are critical when running a marathon. Last year I was wearing my trusty Timberland for the run. BIG mistake. Why? Because prior to the marathon, the sole already came off and being pro-environment, I decided to rescue the shoe by sending it for repairs. As a result, the sole came off nearing the end of the race. Luckily I didn’t have any more energy to run, else I would be cursing myself…
The shoe that was
This year I got myself a pair of Nike Free 7.0. Size 9. I usually wear Size 8 but somehow Nike shoes seem to be narrower around the width of the sole. The salesman told me, “Tight is good! The shoe is designed that way!”. I took Size 8 and a few days later returned for a Size 9. Good your head ah!! Gave me blisters la TNS!! Size 9 was just nice, still a bit snug, but after I gave it the run-in it was PERFECT. Whats the damage? 284 Ringgit after discount. Phew. I was aiming for a pair of Asics in the first place, but they were waaaayyyy out of my reach. Nevertheless it was a good investment.
Can’t wait to run again tomorrow. Hope it doesn’t rain again. The weather hasn’t been cooperative lately and I don’t really like running on the treadmill. It leaves me feeling like……the Teletubbies. Boing boing!! Anyway hope I can pick up the pace tomorrow ;)
*Update – these shoes was stolen right outside my doorstep in January 2008!
