Running out of time breath

It was 2.45am in the ungodly hour and I was still tossing about in my bed, trying to get some decent sleep. To think that I was supposed to wake up at 5.45am for my half-marathon training, I could not help but to wonder if I would be able to make it to work on time at 11am.

Yeah, it was limitation all over again. :P The only difference is that this time, I have registered myself instead of just stopping at planning to do so.

Many of us might not know about this but Milo does contain caffeine, though in a smaller amount compared to coffee. It was certainly a mistake of mine to have a cup as supper which resulted in the owl-like awareness during bedtime. I was so wide awake that I actually decided to just expedite the jogging schedule to 3am if I still failed to fall asleep by then.

By 5.15am, I was wide awake again. Sensing no point in trying to gain myself another half an hour's rest, I got myself geared up and hit the 5.5km path that I had plotted a day earlier. The aim was to make two rounds, which is equivalent to around 11km.


You may want to view the larger map to save your eyesight.

I usually hit the jogging path along the Air Itam dam as the air there is much cleaner but it was too far away for - almost - daily practice.

Unfortunately, while drafting this new route, I failed to take into consideration the terrace houses along the road. Dogs barked non-stop even from a distance away and if any of these gates were not locked properly, it would be my LIFE that I am running for, instead of this silly marathon.

The previous night's Milo-drenched breads did not help much as it aggravated my IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), which in turn caused my mouth and anus to burp non-stop all the way.

It was not until the 3.2km mark that I made my first stop due to my left shoe's undone shoelace. It was at this point in time that the progress started going downhill. Bending down to tie the shoelace proved to be a grave mistake as I started to experience dizziness with the butterflies in my stomach threatening to throw all its contents out my mouth. Now that I recall it, I find it funny how my mouth had to start multitasking:

• gasping for air
• taking over my nose's task of exhaling carbon dioxide
• belching out the air trapped in my stomach
• yawning
• getting itself ready to puke

A few hundred meters of slow walk later, my condition improved a little and I managed to switch to the running gear again.

Jogging along main roads has its pros and cons. Main roads are usually brighter and you do not need to fear for any up-to-no-good stranger lurking around in dark corners. However, you will have to compromise on the air quality due to the higher frequency of vehicles compared to those smaller roads. Imagine yourself fighting for air to land another foot forward when out of no where, an old bus leaves you enveloped in a cloud of black, smelly smoke in its wake. That was so demoralizing that I almost took the shortest route home while questioning my earlier self on the need to torment myself over this RM40 race.

I broke down again - temporarily - at the 4.6km mark due to the recurring nauseatic sensation before pushing myself home to complete the 5.5km.

36 minutes 16 seconds.

My initial goal was to complete 10km in an hour. To fail that is bad but to spend so much time just for 5.5km, that is bad bad bad! Compared to the yesteryears, my stamina is clearly fizzling away. Is this a sign of age catching up?

-sigh-

I sincerely hope that this failure will not linger on. To quote Mr. Fail-A-Lot, Thomas Edison:

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

Good luck to myself on my next attempt, scheduled to be on this coming Tuesday.