Puteri Iskandar Night Run 2017: No Shirt? No Problem!

 Running a half marathon a feat by itself. For a casual runner as myself, unfortunately I don't have the luxury to properly run the distance to prepare for them.

The only way for me is to have the early morning runs and to keep myself as fit as possible.

Personally, running 21km is a hell. I’ve got nothing to prove at this point having run in events for five years already. 10km is much more suitable for me to keep the legs in the best condition.

The only motivation to run the half marathons is the finishing tee. I’ll run any half marathons that will give out finishing tee at the end of the grueling run. 

Because of that, the Puteri Iskandar Night Marathon event is perfect for me. Close at home, with the finishing tee as the final touch. I just had to run it by myself though. Iqbal and Rosman doesn’t seem are too keen to run currently.

I was in a tight schedule at work, so I decided to just collect the running tee during the running event night. Arriving at the Bulatan Iskandar just in time for the starting time, decidedly it was such a bad idea. I found out that event’s running tee was out of stock!

I have to run in these? Ow, man!

The organizer had miscalculated the quantity and I ended up with my cotton Hong Kong Hard Rock Café shirt. This has to be the worst combination ever! I had never to run in a non-event cotton shirt before! And it was for a 21km to boot.

Nonetheless, it’s not that I could anything anymore at that moment. The full marathon had already being released. Mine was next. So off I went when the horn was blasted, the fireworks crackled signaling the start for the half marathon run.

For the first 5km usually it was smooth. I just have to keep the legs running at my usual pace. 

Not too fast, or I’ll be short of breath faster at the latter stage. 

Not too slow, or I’ll ended up at the last pack of the run. 

I don’t want to end up being picked up at the end. Just nice will do it - at my snail like pace of 6km/h. :)

In fact the run was too good to be true. I usually will break down at 8km. But I found that at 8km, I was doing quite fine. 

Hmmm, maybe I'll try until 10km.....

10km, still going strong...? Huh?

12km.... Still OK? This is really weird....

15km.... Not breaking out yet? Push forward then!

18km! I managed to run for 3 straight hours before at last I put my laurels to rest. In fact I never managed to run up until this stage. Usually just after 2 and half hours I already limping off walking until the finishing line.

There are a lot of thinking that I put during the run on how does this happens. I was never really a fast runner nor can sustain a stable run. But I found running in the body fitting shirt was very comfy. I might be sweating a lot, but that didn't detract me as much that I imagine them should be.

The lone road ahead..

I also could understand how Iqbal could sustain his run for all this time. He always remarked that unlike me, he only stop for walk only for few minutes. No matter how much I tried, I never could emulate that.

Not until this run. I'll run as much as possible. Once the lactic acid kicks in, I stop to walk. But only for a while because once the hurt dissipates, I'll run again. I had doing this over and over again for the past 1 and half hours and still being able to maintain the pace. 

Having a cramp is not I want...

It was just a whole lot of walking at the last 3km after that. I'm very much feeling a lot better with myself after this new discovery. For this time though, this is enough. There were still a lot of runners behind, and I'm not going to punish my legs just to get to the finish line.

It was a short trip to finishing line. After getting the finishing tee (nasib baik tak habis), I had my carbo loading with one set of cheesy roti john. Drove back to home immediately. It was already 2am after all.

Can't wait for my next half marathon. I'll run the whole 21km this time!