Completed My First Half Marathon of 21.1KM

My first time taking part in a Half Marathon run at the PJ Half Marathon 2012.

I first started participating in marathons when I was back in high school, it all started when a friend of mine decided to take a busload of students to participate in marathons. I got excited and joined in, the next thing we knew, we were seeking approval from our principal and gather details of the upcoming marathons in KL.

Me getting ready for PJ Half Marathon, all geared up. After running marathon for about 3 years and due to leg injuries from dancing, I stopped taking part in 10KM marathons until late last year where I took part in Adidas King of The Road 2011 in Sunway 10KM run and my passion for marathons came back as I begin to gain strength in my knees. I wanted to push myself a little to see if I can complete another 10KM. However, I’ve never practiced for any 10KM runs as to me 10KM is quite a short distance so I just went, as I knew my own knee conditions I never compete against time; nevertheless I completed Borneo International Marathon 2012, 10KM in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah early this year.

Starting point for 21.1KM at 5.30am My target was to join Adidas King of The Road 2012 but the female section registration was full and I hoped for Nike We Run 2012 but registration was extremely frustrating as I waited to enter the page for 2 hours and they announced it’s full. Many were frustrated and well I’m giving up on Nike Run.

How I got myself into running a Half Marathon (21.1KM) was due to the extended early bird price of PJ Half Marathon and my itchy legs wanted to run more than 7KM, as they didn’t have any 10KM category. So I took up the challenge on myself and decided to take up my first half marathon run.

I’ve got only 3 weeks to prepare for Half Marathon and time wasn’t sufficient to do the trainings. In that 3 weeks I did 3 times 5KM run in alternate days of the 1st week and did a 7KM training on the 2nd week and on the 3rd week I took a rest for the entire week and just did some swimming. I did watch my diet especially one week before the run to ensure my body got enough energy and I ate lots of rice and bananas. On the day of the run, I took bread and banana for breakfast.

Water stations and marathon is the best time to litterTo me the goal was to complete 21.1KM despite of time as this is my first time, training wasn’t sufficient and certainly I do not want to injured my legs so I’m not pushing myself too hard. In the end, it was certainly a personal achievement and although I exceeded the time limit of 3 hours to complete half marathon, I’m pleased with myself as I was quite near to the 3 hours time limit so I’m happy with the result as I’ve never thought after injury, I can go for marathons.

I’ve got to witness a beautiful sunrise while almost completing the marathon.

I got my medal but there’s no certificates for me as I wasn’t qualify within the 3 hours time limit.

I’ve been training with this Nike Run app on my iPhone. It’s a great app and it keeps track of my running conditions. Running 21.1KM allows you to burn 1K calories – that was certainly a joy!

The goodie bag. After the run, I slept for the entire day till evening and I couldn’t feel my legs. But after one day, it was back to normal. It was a great experience to be able to complete Half Marathon.Next, I’m looking forward to other marathons to target next year!