First Marathon: 42.195km - A DREAM COME TRUE!

I can't believe I did it. I ran my first marathon on 2nd December 2012 and am the first person in my entire family (extended family included) to have ever run the marathon. It took me 6 hrs 46 mins (slow I know) to complete. The pain between 30km and 42km was excruciating and was so happy to have made it across the line. This is one of the greatest achievements of my life as I was almost morbidly obese at one time in my life. The turnaround to my life, physique and achievements have been huge. Running a marathon was a dream for me just 2 years ago. Today it is a reality. This proves that anything can be achieved when you put your mind to it. With this life achievement under my belt, I have now set my target on gaining a ripped physique as soon as possible; and if I can run a marathon, I can definitely do this!

30km in 3hrs 37mins 49secs

This Sunday was a momentous day as I beat my previous longest running distance by 9km. I never thought that I could beat 21km. But I wanted to try and did the 30km in a time that I am proud of. The pain was excruciating and I took 6 Panadols when I got back home. Yesterday the pain on my leg muscles was much abated while today I can positively walk straight again - albeit with a little pain. I must say that the experience was amazing and the support by random strangers towards the end was encouraging. I am glad to have broken my personal best record and hope to break it again soon.

21km Half Marathon - 3rd time!

Oh...I forgot to mention in my last post that I ran my 3rd half marathon on September 9th and completed it in 2hrs 31 mins...although I'm going to call it 2 hrs 21 mins due to huge congestion throughout the race forcing me to stop several times during the run. I reckon I lost about 10 mins at least (probably more) due to this. Anywhoo...I am preparing for longer runs and recognize that my overall fitness, core strength and hamstring muscles need to be increased in order to run longer and faster. Later!

Wow...super improvement

Today was great! I ran 10km in 53 mins 50 seconds. With is more than 1 min off my previous best. Anyone who runs long distances will tell you that shaving off even 30 seconds from your previous best when running long distances is a HUGE thing. My previous best was 55mins 12 seconds and I managed to beat that by 1 min 22 seconds. It seems that my training is truly paying off and I think I'm now ready for a half marathon. I'll probably try to run it within the next few months. I hope that I can maintain this stamina and speed until then. Anyway today was good. Here's hoping for more good runs in the future.

10km in 55mins 17sec

Wow...I didn't think I would run another 10k so soon. This time I ran it in 55mins 17 seconds. Which is 5 seconds more than my last 10k one week ago. I'm glad I ran 10km again. This means that I've got a good chance to run the 21km half marathon this year. The 10km is getting easier and I think the half marathon should be within my endurance capability.

In the meantime, I found this great article about how to overcome the excuses to skip running. The article by www.besthealthmag.ca is very good for people who are constantly battling excuses to run. Everyone falls into this category, including myself. I am constantly battling my excuses and this article helps overcome some of them.

33 mins workout

Today I did a 33 mins workout with stretches, pushups, crunches, squats, supermans and leg-lifts. It was much easier than I expected as I had taken a 2 day break to recover from my 10km run. Maybe my body had rebuilt itself during those 2 days and I had more energy to do the workout. However, 2 day breaks are not going to happen again if I can help it; even if I do a 10km run. Hopefully the next run will be longer and I will get more prepared for my 21km run that I wan to do this year.