Penang Bridge Run 2010 report

This year's PBR is my 20th half marathon. The best I could hope in my current woeful state of fitness is to finish within 3.5 hrs and get a medal. The plan was to run for at least 10 km and walk/ run the next 11 km. I found out this was not going to happen 2.7km into the race. At this point, I had run for 20 minutes but suddenly I ran out of energy. I am still at a loss on why it happened but I was reduced to a brisk walk all the way to the highest point on the bridge.

On the downhill section, I mustered enough energy to run. Ominously, at the bottom of the downhill slope, I could see in the far distance, fingers of bluish lightning bolts arching towards the ground. A short while later, I felt drops of liquid on my face. A drizzle would be nice and cooling I thought but what followed can only described wrath or punishment from the rain gods.

Rain drops fell furiously and I could swear it sounded like bullets hitting the concrete surface. The water drops were large enough to sting and and there were several occasions when I had to simply close my eyes. Needless to say, I was in no mood to slosh through the water or run in my now soaked socks and shoes. I could honestly say it was a joyless slog walk to the finish line. Thankfully I did finish in 3 hrs 10 minutes which is 10 minutes slower than last year.

It is far cry from my previous times of 2 hours over the longer (22.3 km) route which started from Universiti Sains Malaysia. Boy, I miss those days a lot.

Just one more thing ; As indication of how heavy the rain was this morning, I saw a 5 hour pacer for the women's marathon with a balloon so water logged that it failed to float in the air. The balloon was on the ground trailing behind but still attached to her.

Good Session on the treadmill today

Nowadays I rarely run outdoors because the higher impact force will worsen my knee problem. Almost every run I do is on a treadmill at the gym. Sometimes it is quite boring and on most days I can't wait to finish the run. Yesterday I only managed 3.2 km in 22 minutes.

On rare occasions, I experience a runner's high when running seems effortless. I sort of become aware of running and nothing else. There is even a web site that gives a method to get a runner's high here. For me it takes a run of at least 4 km to be able to experience a runner's high. I did 4.5 km (32 minutes) today and experienced the runner's high. I think I could have continued running for another 2 km but decided to stop to spare my knee.

Advice no. 4 o on the website seems to be the key "Let your speed find you".