The race starts at 4am the following morning. Thank god I did not subscribed for the full marathon that kick off at an early 3am. After a diner at the local fast food chain Jolibee I head back to the hotel for an early night. I have decided to give it a shot.
When I woke up at 3am, I am not so sure anymore of the feasibility of my objective. It is impossible to put on my socks without feeling pain in my still recovering ankle. I decided not to put any and head towards the start line.
The atmosphere is electric between the oppressive humidity and the energy of the large crowd. I am so excited. I am not sure yet I will be able to run - I have not worn shoes for almost 3 weeks and have not run for exactly as much. The finishing window for the half marathon is 4 hours which basically means I can walk the entire race and get to the finish line getting my finisher medal and kit. The start is very typical of such an event: I walk the first few hundred meters with the back of the pack evaluating the elasticity and response of my ankle. I have almost not solicited it for the last 20 days. When the runners are starting to spread around the route I eventually start to run. Running is a very big word though. I am more limping than anything. But I am happy and it feels good.
I would take it very easy throughout the all 21.1 km, taking time at the numerous water point to rehydrate myself. The humidity is quite hard to cope with and water or gatorade is very much appreciated.
2 hours and 13 minutes after starting, I was back to the initial point crossing the finish line. It is very hard for me to describe my feeling at that point of time. Even though this is far from being my first race or the longest one I have participated in (I have a couple marathons under my belt and numerous runs with my brother that were much longer that this one) I simply am overwhelmed. I have come a very long way since Xmas and my stay in the hospital.
I collect my finisher package consisting of a medal, a finisher shirt and couple of other goodies. It is not even 6:30 in the morning and definitely time to go back to sleep.
The final result is quite astonishing to me: 2h13m06s for a ranking of 215 out 1598 runners taking part of the half marathon. Would I have been normally fit and ran the time I had set myself, I might have finished in the top 30… but with ifs you can change the world and I am happy enough to be a finisher and to have pushed myself to compete. I’ll break my PB in the near future for sure!
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| A well deserved selfie :) |
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