Wow, I hit 19 kms!

Hi everyone!

So during the weekend, I managed to run 19 km which is the longest run that I had to do in my training schedule. On the day itself, I was dreading it. Trying to postpone it or basically not run at all. 19 km is daunting! But there is no other time like now. And I told myself, if anything bad happens, like a sprain or exhaustion, just walk the rest of the journey. Thankfully nothing serious happened and now that I’ve done it, I’m quite happy of myself.

The rest of the training will get easier and taper down and I think I’m more or less ready in time for the Roma Ostia half-marathon come 3 March. To be honest, if you asked me if I could do this a year ago, mentally I probably don’t think I could. But after following the training schedule, it gave me more confidence that I can do it.

I mean,  after running 5 km, what’s another 2 km more the next time? Then after running 7km, it’s just another 2 km more. And before you know it you’ve hit 19 km already. Just another 2 km to go in three weeks time. I can do this!

I’m not going to lie and gloss over and pretend that everything was perfect, because it wasn’t. The last few kms was a bother and a pain. My legs started crying out and I had to slow my pace down because I really didn’t want to injure myself.

And then by the time I was done, I was sweaty and disgusting and the only thing that I had in mind was to lie down. So as soon as I reached home, I looked at the sofa and then the bed but didn’t want to dirty them so I layed myself on the floor for a good 10 minutes and waited for the pulsating feeling to pass over.

And then the rest of the day, I walked like an old woman with osteoporosis – complaining while going down the stairs as I can feel each step … sort of like when the little mermaid first got her feet. So much pins and needles!

Which is why, at this point of time, I don’t even want to THINK of joining a marathon. I feel tired just thinking about it. But despite all that, I haven’t regretted the past weeks. I feel really good about myself. I know that I have discipline and determination, that if I set my mind on something, I know that I can do it.

Health and physical wise, I don’t feel any different though. It’s not like I see a 6 pack on my tummy or I walk fast like the flash when I go around. But I’m just happy that after an intensive run, I recover and am back to almost 100% the next day.

Anyway, something interesting that I noticed after since starting my training :

1. I get fungry all the time. Now I can eat an entire plate of pasta, and then have space for a helping of something else or eat an appetizer and then a whole pizza with no problems.

2. Despite that, I don’t seem to put on any weight. Neither have I lost any. Cool! And that makes me think that I’ve reached the point where I can’t lose weight anymore. Cart thinks that my muscles are growing. My weighing machine has this function for measuring Body fat/Muscle/Bone density/BMI. But I didn’t have the foresight of recording them though! Would be interesting to compare them before and after.

3. I think I am quite flat right now. No T and no A. Even my smallest and most comfy bra don’t seem fit well and they keep riding up cos there’s nothing to hold them down any more.  Now I’m very tempted to just go out in public bra-less.

By the way, before I end this post, I just found out that they give a 4k prize to the first man and woman to reach the finish line each. Cool! And 25k for Maratona di Roma. How lucrative! I see why there are a lot of contestants participating even from overseas. A good runner could make a good living out of this. Although I don’t think I am able to do that! I don’t even care about timings. All I want to do now is just to make sure that I finish the race!

Sidenote : If you are in Rome on the 3rd March and are free on the day, you’d make me really happy if you’d rally for me at Piazza Cristoforo Colombo which is the end point. My first half marathon! I’ll buy you a coffee 🙂