Sunday, Dec 4, past midnight, I just wrapped up a wedding shoot and I ended up having only 2 hrs sleep (or was it a nap?) because by 4am that day, I was meeting my running buddies. Brian was pretty sure worried but I didn’t want to tell him straight or made him sense how tired I already was after the wedding shoot because if I did, he’d probably stop me from joining the run. I think anyone else might have given up if they were on my shoes but I did not…and chose not to. So off I went with whatever courage I’ve gathered myself with, together with more than 30, 000 runners in the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore.
‘Pain is temporary.’
‘Impossible is possible.’
‘Don’t give up. Don’t give up.’
‘Life is surely short.’
‘If I can go through this feat, I can go through anything the world throws at me!’
Those phrases were like screaming on my head by the time I reached 29km and even managed to tweet so I can at least tell the world that there I was — barely alive but determined to beat the odds. Yes, I prayed damn hard like I’ve never prayed before. And along with my running buddies, laughin’ , smiling, squinting at every pain, bearing the sun’s heat, I took every stride, with all my might, even as slow as I could, walk in between, biting my lips (in case I lose it!), to reach the finish line — and when I did, God knows I cried inside…happily! 🙂
Photo above from the Marathon-Photos.com which I had no choice but to purchase because they were my only living evidence! 🙂
In case you wonder, I finished at a really not-so-decent time, it definitely wasn’t for a Kenyan or any professional runner, but since I’m not even close to being a pro in this lifetime — I took what I considered my glorious feat at 7h:40m:48s (net time), still qualified as an official Finisher. Hooorayyy! In my own world, I heard all the angels in heaven cheering out for me you see. Hehe And for the record, official results said that I was ahead of about 11% of men runners. Hah! and there were about 452 women finishers behind me. Those however really didn’t matter when I crossed the finish line. I could only remember almost crying when I was already just few meters away — you know how when things get into slow motion effect in the movies? That’s what happened. Really. I’ve never been proud beating conquering myself this way.
Obviously, I had all the body sores you can imagine after the race (with the worst sunburns!) and had been attached to my bed the day after (which explains the silence in the blog in the passed days). But if you ask if I’d do it again —- damn YES I would! I know I still had him worried but Thank you dear husband for taking care of me during my recovery! =)
And Thank you everyone for the sincere cheers and all the support from my running buddies and friends (special shout out to TJ Sensei, Nhoel, Eric, Tet and Noynoy). Congratulations again to all of us and to all runners who had their own share of glory too!
Till the next marathon…. 🙂
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