I’d rather lump these three marathons because they were quite similar. Every marathon is unique but still these three had more in common than dissimilarities.
But there was one big difference between these three marathons and all the previous marathons. I had a chronically injured right hamstring. This started in the middle of 1997, about six months before my 1997 marathon. I was to run the 100m dash for my department during our company’s sports meet. I used to be a 400m sprinter in secondary school, but that was so long ago. I did some stretching and ran one lap round the track for warm up. But that wasn’t enough.
During the 100 m race, with just 5m more to go before the finish line, I felt a very acute pain on my right hamstring. My right leg suddenly refused to move one move step. I managed to limp to the finish line but I knew I had injured my leg. Colleagues rushed to me to see what was wrong. I made my way to the clinic straightaway, accompanied by a colleague.
A few hours later, a large long line of blood was plainly visible within my right hamstring, stretching from my lower buttock right up to nearly my calves. It was internal bleeding caused by my torn hamstring. The doctor advised me not to run for the next 3 weeks. A few weeks later, I saw a sports specialist, but he said that there was nothing to do except to let it heal by itself.
I wish that it could heal itself. Even today, I still feel my right hamstring aching occasionally, especially when running long distances. Most likely, I would have to bear this injury for the rest of my life. But as the years go by, it seems to get slightly better.
But for the 1997 and 1999 Marathons especially, I had to endure the pain of my torn right hamstring, both during jogging and the races. On the positive side, my hamstring pain distracted my mind from the exhaustion and pain of the rest of my body. And it made me ever more determined to finish the marathons.
Another commonality among these three marathons was that I did not specifically train. I simply jogged my usual distance of about 8 km about twice per week. So I was happy to finish these these races. |
