In a line - I successfully completed the Philadelphia half-marathon in 2hrs 24mins 31secs. And here's as the story rolls...
I drove to Philly the day before to attend the runners expo. I had to collect my Running Number - a sheet of paper that needs to be pinned to my tee-shirt and my Bib (not that one) - a tag used for timing the start and finish and which needs to be tied to the shoe lace. It was my first marathon and I was just surprised to see the festive atmosphere and the tons and tons of people around. Was also getting a bit nervous - I had never actually run 13.1 miles even in practice. Followed that up with a nice dinner at Penang Malaysian restaurant with Niki and her cousins and an early slip into bed.
Then came the big day. I had to wake up at 5:30AM to freshen up and rush to the start line. The official start time was 7AM and I happened to squeeze in there about 10 minutes before the kickoff. It was an amazing feeling - the atmosphere was electrifying - more than 16000 runners - more than 500,000 people in audience - it just cannot get better. It was similar to the New Year countdown with music, frolic and the actual countdown to the marathon. The temperature was just above the freezing point and I had my gloves and sweatshirt on, to keep myself warm. It was starting to drizzle a bit before the start and we were hoping that the rain doesnt come down hard on us.
And moments after 7:15AM came the real start. The 2007 Philadelphia Marathon was ON....
13.1 miles to go. There were markers and time boards at the completion of every mile. Also there were water/energy breaks at every 1-2 miles. Luckily the drizzle stopped in a couple of miles and I had to shed my gloves and sweatshirt as it was getting hot. For the first 4-5 miles, I was making a consistent timing of 10 minutes per mile. After an hour it was getting a bit tough to hold on to the speed. The most dreaded mile was the one from the 9th mile to the 10th. It was a very uphill path all the way and it came at a really bad time - I took about 15 minutes just to complete that mile. After the 10th, the rest seemed to be a pleasure. As I neared the end, the crowd was building up and people cheering everywhere. It was like a shot in the arm and all of us just started sprinting - for a second, all the 13 miles were left behind and it was the 0.1 mile to the finish line that motivated us. As I crossed the finish line, an unexplainable sense of happiness and satisfaction got over me. I have successfully completed the Philadelphia Marathon. All I could do was to turn back and look at my timing clock - it read 02:24:31 - a moment to capture forever - the magical moment!
I drove to Philly the day before to attend the runners expo. I had to collect my Running Number - a sheet of paper that needs to be pinned to my tee-shirt and my Bib (not that one) - a tag used for timing the start and finish and which needs to be tied to the shoe lace. It was my first marathon and I was just surprised to see the festive atmosphere and the tons and tons of people around. Was also getting a bit nervous - I had never actually run 13.1 miles even in practice. Followed that up with a nice dinner at Penang Malaysian restaurant with Niki and her cousins and an early slip into bed.
Then came the big day. I had to wake up at 5:30AM to freshen up and rush to the start line. The official start time was 7AM and I happened to squeeze in there about 10 minutes before the kickoff. It was an amazing feeling - the atmosphere was electrifying - more than 16000 runners - more than 500,000 people in audience - it just cannot get better. It was similar to the New Year countdown with music, frolic and the actual countdown to the marathon. The temperature was just above the freezing point and I had my gloves and sweatshirt on, to keep myself warm. It was starting to drizzle a bit before the start and we were hoping that the rain doesnt come down hard on us.
And moments after 7:15AM came the real start. The 2007 Philadelphia Marathon was ON....
13.1 miles to go. There were markers and time boards at the completion of every mile. Also there were water/energy breaks at every 1-2 miles. Luckily the drizzle stopped in a couple of miles and I had to shed my gloves and sweatshirt as it was getting hot. For the first 4-5 miles, I was making a consistent timing of 10 minutes per mile. After an hour it was getting a bit tough to hold on to the speed. The most dreaded mile was the one from the 9th mile to the 10th. It was a very uphill path all the way and it came at a really bad time - I took about 15 minutes just to complete that mile. After the 10th, the rest seemed to be a pleasure. As I neared the end, the crowd was building up and people cheering everywhere. It was like a shot in the arm and all of us just started sprinting - for a second, all the 13 miles were left behind and it was the 0.1 mile to the finish line that motivated us. As I crossed the finish line, an unexplainable sense of happiness and satisfaction got over me. I have successfully completed the Philadelphia Marathon. All I could do was to turn back and look at my timing clock - it read 02:24:31 - a moment to capture forever - the magical moment!
No comments:
Post a Comment