Running Twenty One Kilometres

I didn't think I'd see the day where I can tell people that I ran 21 kilometres. Not through event running of course, but still.

When I first did 13km back in February, I thought to myself "wah not bad, happy, kthxbye", then I did 15km a few months later and thought to myself "wokay 2 more km, yay me".

Who'd have thought I'd be passing that mark in under a month later??? I owe it to Al (and his "personal trainer" Colin, lol) who was planning for his 21km Standard Chartered Marathon later in December, if it weren't for him wanting to train for it, I'd never find myself even considering such a distance in my runs.

21 kilometres is different, the first 15 was easy, running together with Colin and Al along the way, me pacing up a little to catch two toilet breaks.

During the last 6km though, things got tougher for me...I started having a mental block or "die la how to finish?" mentality. That's when I paced up (I know...people want to puncture already will pace down, but I went the other route).

I whipped out my earphones, plugged them into my phone, and started to "brain wash" myself. 6km was my usual route I would do if I ran around my neighbourhood, so with earphones plugged in, I started imagining myself running my usual 6km route, and whenever I passed the 500m mark, I'd image where I'd probably be at that point in my neighbourhood run.

Not being familiar with your surroundings can some times be demoralising for me during a run...I remembered how during my morning runs, running pass Pepperonis meant that I was about 2km into my route so when I passed the 2km mark, that's that I did, imagine myself passing Pepperonis. At 3.5km, I'd normally find myself at the turning point at 6 avenue, so that's where I imagined I would be when I passed the 3.5 mark. This method worked...sorta. For the first few kilometres I felt motivated again, especially after 3.5km or the "6 avenue turning point" mark, cause normally during my morning run that means I'm halfway through and pretty much about to end soon.

Everything went fine until the last 1km...by then I was rather burned out, my mind stopped being imaginative, the music in my ears seemed to fade away, and all I could hear was breathing.

It was rather uncomfortable...breathing.....breathing....breathing...bre...McDonalds!!!! I think if I hadn't looked hard enough to spot the starting point in a distance, I would have just stopped, walked, and waited for Colin and Al to catch up and eventually overtake me.

Today's run was tough, my feet are sore, I haven't walked since, I waddle to get from point A to point B. Thanks to Al for the recovery drink, certainly not the tastiest beverage but it was much needed after such a distance.

Pasta from Army Market was definitely an added bonus, thanks Colin for the recommendation.

Tonight I shall strap myself to my parent's massage chair and let it beat me up like a lump of bread dough.