This was one of my most ill prepared marathons. I was too busy studying to train. I hadn’t even done my usual jogging for the past few months. I was totally unfit for this marathon. A concerned friend advised against running the marathon. He said it would be dangerous. He meant well and maybe he was right.
But I felt like running. I wanted a break from my studies. Speaking of my studies, this marathon was just two days before my Finance final exam paper. And Finance was one class in which I was struggling. What’s the present value or the future value of this or that? Those things drove me nuts!
My only “training”, if I can even call that “training”, was a slow 4 km jog along the beautiful Kauai Beach on Friday night, less than 48 hours before the marathon. (The coming Sunday morning was the marathon). Crazy, wasn’t I? And guess what? The very next day, my legs were sore! Sore just after a 4 km jog. How can my legs last 42 km? It would take more than a Hawaiian miracle to pull this one off.
As expected, the run was a struggle. I prodded along slowly most of the way. Surprisingly, it wasn’t my unfit legs that were giving me the most problems but my stomach! I felt extremely hungry at about the 30 km mark. I had hit the “wall” without knowing it. At that time, I still hadn’t even heard of the “wall”. So without carbo-loading, my carbo reserves were quickly depleted.
I watched in envy as some of the other runners ate bananas. Wish I could have just one. As I ran along a Safeway supermarket, how I wish I could just go in and buy something to eat. But I did not carry any money. I had to summon the much-needed energy from somewhere!
So I struggled till I crossed the finished line after 5.5 hours. This was my slowest marathon so far, and was one hour slower than my last marathon in 1988.
But I was glad that I had completed the race. At the back of my mind was always my friend’s advice not to run. So being alive was a bonus. But then again, being alive meant that I had to face the dreaded Finance exam in two days’ time. |
