COFFEE & BISCUITS

So yes, I did it, and not only did I do it, I also did it ALMOST beautifully. My personal goals going into this race were:

1. finish the race
2. don’t stop running
3. finish with a pace faster than 12:00min/mile

I mostly achieved my personal goals. My first 6 miles were beautiful — I kept on thinking how well I was doing those 6; I was comfortably breathing, I was smiling all the time, I cheered whenever I saw camera men, I high-fived whenever hands were extended. Most of all, I was running — FAST. This is what people call “SHE IS ON A ROLL”. I didn’t even feel the need to stop at the aid stations to drink water — and I passed by 3 aid stations without taking a sip. My pace, which genuinely surprised me — was always around 9ish min/mile whenever I checked my fancy Garmin watch. This was really fast by my standard.

THEN, I had to pee. I took a one minute bathroom break. And then I started feeling thirsty. Then pain started registering on my right abdomen. Then my breathing became uneven. At mile 7 or 8, I was dying. But at the same time, I thought to myself, what a beautiful route this is. I know this running route, because I did my 8 miles last weekend on the very same road.

By the way, the music along the racing route was great running music.

The running got a little better as I got to just about 8 miles, when these passerbys started yelling “2 more to go!”. So I was picking up my pace again at this point, and several times I checked the watch I have reverted back to 9ish or early 10ish.

BUT, what made this an ALMOST beautiful race was what happened next. As I got to 9.5 mile, I saw this green banner sustained by two columns, so I thought I was reaching the finish line — so I went on a SPRINT. A sprint as in 7-8 min/mile sprint, racing past people, running crazily.

Spectators were gathering at this junction because it is close to the finish line — note it is CLOSE to the finish line, but not the actual finish line. So I discovered after the SPRINT that what I thought was the finish line was NOT the finish line, and in fact, the finish line is 0.5 mile away. At that point, I was like a deflated balloon. Basically, I felt that my lungs were gonna blow up, or more graphically, as if they were gonna be spill out from my mouth….and I simply could not run at all. So I just stopped. (Meanwhile, all the runners which I just passed by were sprinting to the end at this point…they just ran past me). At this time, I heard a lot of “AWWWWW” among the spectators, because at the end point it is usual for people to be sprinting not stopping!

After what I think should be about 20 seconds, I struggled back to the pace, running very, very slowly to the finish line, where my eyebrows were locked and intense (because of my spilling lungs), and a contrast to what I imagined would be this victorious hand-waving eye at the camera sort of cheering and sprinting at the end point.

So you see, it could be a 100 percent beautiful race, but that fake finish line tricked me.

However, I have to say, I am very satisfied with my race. The runners were just great. The weather was great. It was just an amazing race, and I am hooked now. Most importantly, I exceeded myself.

Here is my official race record (it’s on the website now)…total finishing time is 1:44:10…though personally I would delete one minute for my bathroom break in the middle. That makes my average pace at about 10:30 min / mile.

My the personal goal is to average 9:30 min / mile in the next long distance race.

Here is my record according to the race sponsor webiste:

Place Div /Tot Sex Name No. Ag Div St Nettime Pace Split Guntime
===== ========= ==== ==== ===== == ===== == ==== === ===== =======
5501 880/1222 2651 ANNA WONG 8768 26 F2529 IL 1:44:10 10:25 50:12 1:55:46

Rankings: 878 out of 999 in my age group 25-29. 5501 out of 7365.