bbg - life in Kobe

I completed the marathon!

After 6hr30min of torture, I completed the marathon!

It actually felt great at first, the weather was freezing cold while we waiting at the start line, and it actually started snowing slightly, but once the race got to a start, it was quite a wonderful feeling to be going through all the lanes of Shinjuku with just the sea of runners. I didn't perspire for maybe the first 5km, and after that , maybe because I didn't train much, and also I did run slightly too fast at first, the back of my left knee started hurting and I think it was even a miracle I managed to keep running for 21km. "Mind over matter, mind over matter" was the only thing I tried to keep thinking, and it kinda worked for most of it, but when the pain worsened, and my perseverance kinda broke after 21km, I could only try to walk as quickly as I could and look forward to seeing my supporters along the way. I almost missed the cutoff for 35km, didn't realise I was walking too slowly and that the 30-35km cutoff times were so near, almost died after crossing it a minute before it closed. Felt so tired and in pain that I just stretched out there and sobbed uncontrollably while waiting for Ryo & bb to come by. Luckily it was 40 minutes to the next 38km point and I took a short rest to compose myself and walked on with another girl who was also caught in the same situation behind me. We became the last 2 pple in the race at that point.. until we caught up with more people walking at around 40km. phew. & finally made it to the end with about 5 minutes to spare. What a relief to finally reach the finish point and sit down after getting the medal and the bag.

I couldn't walk properly that night, and was glad that Shuping came to the hotel and had a good catch up over my celebratory yakiniku dinner. I actually dozed off at about 9.30pm, and woke up at 11.30pm, didn't realise I was so tired. But still can't walk properly and I fell asleep at about past midnight again. The next day was much better, I could at least walk awkwardly slowly.

I'm going to just take a rest from full marathons for a while, 2 in 4 months is just abit many for me and my next run will be a half marathon near my place in April. Go me!