Run Irene…RUN!

“What were you thinking Irene!?” – Ayin

That was my friend’s first comment when I told her that I’m going to run a full marathon – 42.195 km at the end of the year. Hahaa..rather amusing to me, yes To be frank to her, I don’t even know how I am going to make it too. I am totally a beginning runner! Never in my point of life have I run further than 10k, let alone half marathon and look where I caught myself now, breaking my leg (NOT literally please..) to finish a FULL marathon. Ouch! When I signed up for the race, I don’t have a single agenda to run, I don’t know the appropriate clothes or shoes to wear, I have no idea what the diet and nutritions for runners are. I am a newbie!!!

Yet…I still signed up. Am I crazy or what?

I know I have no experience of running marathon at all…BUT I have this very strong will to finish the race (sort of fulfilling a long-delayed goal). Often times people will ask me, what are my reasons to run the miles? And I will tell them, there’s not really a reason, it’s just the andrenalin when you start, and the feeling when you cross that finish line, and know that you are a winner no matter what place you got.

I came across an article that nicely articulates this. The excerpt below was originally published in the spring 2011 issue of The Trail magazine, a supplement publication I get from Runner’s World.  The article was written by Shannon Farar-Griefer, 49, who is a mother of three kids and started running in 1997.  Since then she has completed 25 ULTRAMARATHONS – which is running 100 miles straight through. Now to me – running 100 miles is crazy.  So I thought it might be worth reading her justification for such supreme lunacy.

Here’s the article in full:

“Running 100 miles is about the challenge of pushing your body and mind to places where someone who’s not a runner – and maybe even a marathoner- might thing unimaginable. It’s not about running all-out fast, like you might do in the other races; it’s about finding a consistent pace that makes sense for the terrain and keeping your legs moving, no matter how much they might want to stop. To me, it’s like a metaphor for life. You’ve got to take the bad with the good, because there are times you are going to hurt and feel horrible out there. It’s going to hurt – just like hitting the wall in the marathon, but in a 100-miler that hurt might last for two hours or four hours or 10 hours. At times, everything hurts, and you feel heavy and slow – your legs, your body and your brain. But that’s part of the challenge. It’s about having the passion to do it, making the commitment to train, and getting through all of those obstacles in the race. And that’s what life is all about. It’s a huge relief when you finish a 100-miler, but it’s also kind of sad because the incredible journey you just went through to get to that point is over. The point where you’re about five miles away and can ‘smell’ the finish line is almost better than the actual finish line itself.  You want that feeling to last forever, so you start thinking about your next race. A lot of runners remember their times – but I don’t keep track of that stuff or even the number of finishes. I just look at it like a blessing in life that I’m able to go out and run 100 miles.” Shannon Farar-Griefer, Ultramarathon Runner, 2011 The Trail Magazine, Rodale.

I can relate to that…

Come to think of it.. I have 4 months and a half to prepare and train for the big day. In fact, I already have the training schedule roll out. Day 1 training burned me a good 625 calories, 10k for 100 mins. Have to increase the pace but it’s not a bad start-up, I’ll say   If you have valuable tips for running a marathon, please do share with me yeah Will share with you how it ends. Meanwhile, run Irene…RUN!!!

Update on 4th Dec 2011 : Mission accomplished!! I bag the finisher t-shirt and medal. For pushing my self to the limit…I’m proud of it!

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