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Here we go! The first running medal ever achieved in my life! #GEWR2016 5km completed!
Well, it was a tough journey though, I almost fainted... here's what happened.
I was excited the night before the race, and had difficulty sleeping. When I finally fell asleep around 2am, I dreamt of myself running and completing the race with a longer completion time than my training run last month. What a dream! Woke up at 5am, ate a banana and headed out to meet Jane at 6am. It crossed my mind that I should take a heavier breakfast but decided not to, since I heard Jane only had an apple for breakfast. Later on, I learnt it the hard way... that everyone has a different stomach and tolerance level. (too late.)
Arriving at Promenade station, we felt like we were students going for P.E. lesson when we saw everyone wearing the same red race shirt and shorts. (lol.) It felt pretty amazing to be part of this large group of women who are filled with so much drive and determination early in the morning.
Jane and I wanted to look for the baggage deposit area, but it was so crowed and we ended up walking to the starting line instead. Everyone there were waiting to start the race and we couldn't turn back. This explains why we were early enough to be in the first wave.
It was a moment of excitement for me when the race gun fired! Slow and steady I managed to enjoy the first 3.5km of my run without stopping.... then I felt an empty gastric and turned slightly nauseous. As explained in my previous post, the nauseous feeling occurred to me very often in the past and I thought I've overcome it.
I was afraid of that fainting feeling, I kept telling myself not to stop and lose that momentum but I succumbed to the physical unease in the end. As soon as I slowed down to walk, it felt worse. Dizziness kicked in... so I picked up my speed to jog a little. Thankfully, there was a water point nearby and quickly helped myself to half a cup of 100 Plus. For the rest of the journey, I ran, stopped and walked. The stamina was gone and all I had in mind was to keep praying that I don't faint halfway.
During the last lap, I sprinted across the finish line and that felt great. It was that was the moment, you knew you were giving your all. However, within seconds after crossing the line, the dizziness came back. I felt I needed to find a spot to rest and recover but everyone were walking towards the drinks/food/medal collection point and there was no way I could stop in the middle.
I just wanted to get past the collection point and sit down. I did the most ridiculous thing and felt so embarrassed. Upon collecting my drink and banana, with my head spinning, I came to a girl. The girl held a marker on one hand and another, she was giving out a small zipped lock bag with a red item in it. I thought it was Kit Kat. In order to avoid the the delay, I told her I don't need that. She looked at me blankly and said it's the medal! Can't believe I rejected my first ever medal!! Then she looked down at my race bib and she told me I was in the 10km queue instead of 5km. Well, it was so embarrassing!
Despite the hiccups and struggles, I completed my race in 37.14s, a better timing compared to my training run! Thank God, my morning dream was not true.
On another high note, the week before the actual 5km race, I went jogging with Jane. Both of us ran at different pace and I didn't want to slow her down. It wasn't easy to follow another person's pace and each has their own strategy at running. It was still amazing because we completed 9.15km in 1hr 11mins that night without realising! It certainly exceeded my expectations and made me realise it can be more motivating to run with a friend! :)