I have been off the grid for a while but now I'm back! So what have I been up to? this and that. But let's jump right to it shall we: the Stanchart Marathon. This, I have to say, is the one event of the year that I simply cannot miss unless of course I'm dead. I remember completing the half-marathon race last year even after specifically being told by my doctor not to engage in any strenuous activities for a few weeks, but who said doctors are always right, right? Disclaimer: I don't recommend going against the advice of your doctor.
This year I did it again. I took part in this wonderful event and I do have to say I had a ton of fun. I had been training really hard for the event and I wasn't going to let anything come between me and a new PB; that however did not happen. Just three weeks to the event, I messed up my right Achilles tendon and let me just say that is one area of your body you don't want messed up in the weeks leading up to a major race.
It became so swollen and painful that I had to take a break right when I was supposed to be shifting gears . I was however not going to quit and so after a week's rest, I got back on the road and kept pushing. I was doing at least, 13KM in every run and I could feel that Personal Record crumbling under my feet.
On the last Friday leading up to the event, I went out on a short run (around 5KM). I however made the mistake of running on hard tarmac and in new shoes. When I woke up Saturday morning, my feet weren't in the best of shape - let's not forget that the next day was the big day.
I decided to relax the whole of that day and did a bit of carb-loading. That night I was quite anxious and so I trouble sleeping. The next morning I woke up really early, ate half a loaf of brown bread, drank some milk and got out of the house, banana in hand (that was for later but I ate it on my way to the meeting point).
It's worth noting that I walked all the way to Nyayo stadium (event meeting point) which was like 3KM away. Little did I know that this would have an effect on my performance during the race (no, I'm not using that as an excuse for my under-performance).
When I got to Nyayo, there were thousands of people all over and that got me all psyched up. I did some serious warming up, stretching and deep breathing prior to the race so as to ensure that every part of my body was in perfect condition for the race.
Gunshot.....and we were off. From the very start I knew that things weren't as good as I was hoping. My legs were still a bit sore from Friday's ill-informed run but I wasn't going to give in. I could also feel that my feet weren't very happy with the new shoes. At the 8KM mark I was clearly struggling but I had been training my mind for exactly such situations and so I kept pushing: mind over matter was what was at play.
At around 11KM, my right achilles tendon kicked in to add to the agony and by the 14KM mark my knees were really aching. My cardio however was doing pretty well so that really helped.
At the 16KM mark there was a water station, I grabbed a bottle, took a sip to moisten my throat and poured the rest on my head to cool off. About two hundred metres ahead, I came face to face with my worst fear: a hill. I however told myself that if I had made it thus far under so much pain, why on earth would a silly little hill stop me and so I kept pushing. At this point most of the participants were walking and for some reason this really psyched me. Not too long after, the climb was no more and I have to say I was extremely relieved.
I was now just about 3KM to the finish line and I have to say these were the hardest 3 KM I ever did run because I could see the stadium in a distance just taunting me. I knew I had to kick things up a notch in the mental department otherwise I was not going to make it.
At the 20KM mark, my body almost crumbled; my calves were gone and so were my knees, quads, back, hamstrings and just about everything else. I was without a doubt running entirely on brainpower. I contemplated stopping there and then but the stadium was just right there so I pushed on.
700M later I entered the stadium and for some reason everyone was cheering, which was funny because all the elite runners had completed the race dozens of minutes earlier. I used this energy to power myself and did a mini-sprint all the way. When I finally crossed the finish line, I felt such a great sense of achievement that the pain and exhaustion faded. It was simply awesome. The time on my watch: 2:29:13. Definitely not a PB but hey I overcame some serious odds (at least in my opinion) to finish that race. So that my friends was my 2013 Nairobi Stanchart Marathon experience; feel free to share yours.
