Sunday, July 13, 2008

Build up to Gold Coast Marathon

Just two Sundays ago, a couple of friends and myself completed the Gold Coast Marathon. I will recap the events preceding the event itself such as the gruesome training and my thoughts on the marathon itself.

In all honesty, I didn't train much for the Gold Coast Marathon. Yeah months before that we did train. We did quite a few half marathons at East Coast Park. Then there was a period of time where we totally stopped training. At least I stopped training. I finished school, went for holidays with family and loved ones. As a result, I stopped running and neglected training. For a period of like 4 weeks I hardly ran more than 15km.

Following this very enjoyable 4 weeks of my life, Sundown Marathon happened. Was I prepared? Probably not as much as I wanted. So midnight the horn sounded and I told myself 5 hours of suffering began. And true enough, 5 hours and 2 min of suffering and I crossed the finish line. Glad I finished but disappointed at my timing. Oh well..

Sundown ended on 1 June 2008. Gold Coast Marathon was on the 6 July 2008. A good 36 or so days of training. You would think after the disappointment in Sundown I would kick myself in my butt, pull up my low ankle socks and train even harder! Well so did I. But I didn't. Can't really remember what I did. I spent a lot of time at home. Doing stuff myself for myself. And my good friend whom I always blog about went overseas. No training kaki!!! Best! The lazy part of me was like cheering. No more running. Life was good!!!

Unfortunately my friend came back and sadly reality came back with him. He coaxed us back to running. So I ran with him like 3 or 4 times. Monday was like a 15 - 16km long run. Wednesday 18km long run. Friday was East Coast once again, about 21km. So altogether that made up to about 50 - 55km covered in a week. I don't think I ever did that in my preparation for a marathon. Haha. Amazing.. Then the Monday before Gold Coast, he coaxed me into a "short" run. We came back 1 hour 8 min. Dang.. Was upset during the run cos I was cheated. Short to me means 20min of running or maybe like 4 - 5km. Not 1 hour 8 min. But I get where he's coming from and at the end of the day, I appreciate it. Thanks friend. I should give him a name. Hmm.. From now on I name thee Friend A.

Wednesday soon came and on the 3rd of July, a couple of friends ( including Friend A) flew of to Gold Coast, Queensland Australia.

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