Mind Over Matter

Today was purely mind over matter. Think I have been working out too hard during the week (again) save for a rest day yesterday. Today felt like one of my “off” days, woke up feeling not exactly tired, but not exactly energetic either. I was a bit iffy about the distance I had wanted to run, but it had to be a minimum of 25km since that was what I did last. Started out at about 6.05am, saw a couple of runners before me. I have to say that I nearly died after going up the initial incline, which wasn’t even 5km. I experienced muscle fatigue in my gluteus maximus – and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could run. Bumped into a bunch of runners and a guy overtook me just at the mosque after crossing the highway.

By the time I reached about 8km, my legs were so so weak! Going up that slight slope at Plaza Damas nearly killed me. Just as I reached the Petronas station, my running belt came off. I really need to buy a new fuel belt as this one is just deteriorating, and getting overstretched and loose. I was so tired that I had to stop at Petronas to grab some isotonic drinks. I usually run the extra loop before stopping for water.

I was so fatigued that I thought that it’s not possible for me to even achieve 20km today, but after having a Gatorade and a Double Latte Power Gel (2x caffeine!) I felt much better. Oh no wonder I am still perky now, it’s been nearly 7 hours since my run and I am still so wide awake! It’s all that caffeine!

Despite being so tired, I pushed on..slowly but steadily. By this time I was quite sure I would do about 28km, turning back at the traffic lights to Solaris. I felt like I could not go up the hill at the mosque, so I decided to U-turn at the traffic lights. As I was running back to Petronas, I saw my brother and Hsiung. They ran 25km today.

I miraculously managed to run back to Petronas, and back again. Once I reached the Duta highway, I felt kind of homefree. Once I have run past Tijani, it’s always a relieve as it’s downhill all the way back save for a slight incline at Jln Parlimen.

I must say today was extremely warm – it wasn’t very sunny but the air was still and the heat was on. When I came back I had a nice cold shower. I’ve started talking cold showers and using ice packs on my knees now, to reduce injury. To my horror my niece had used up all the ice in my freezer! I was so desperate for ice that I started taking an ice pick to remove all the ice at the side of the freezer in the mini bar refrigerator!

SO although I was tired in the morning I still managed to complete 28km….it was purely mind over matter after 10km. Looking back I can’t believe my mind took over for 18km!! Hope I can do the same on the actual race day!

Great run today!