So, I officially broke my half-marathon's virginity on Saturday night, 12th November 2016. I joined Putrajaya Night Marathon 2016 for the 21km (half-marathon) event and alhamdulillah, I managed to finish before the maximum cut-off time. As a person who haven't been seriously running for years due to studies and my focus towards archery and now work combined with laziness, I found that making my way back to the long distance running quite challenging. Lately it's because of work and my postgrad studies, I couldn't get to train at high discipline. How can I make my daily run when I'm forced to stay back at work until night? I also have a night class on Thursdays and when it rains after 5.30pm, again my chances to train will go down the drain.

THAT STUFF LOOKED FUN BUT IT'S FOR KIDS ONLY, WHY!!

But, I don't make those an excuse to quit running, hehe! I know I'm stubborn and strong-willed. As per last night, I was still under-trained for 21km run but I told myself, I cannot be a quitter.  I was afraid, yes. Because under-trained and inexperienced runners can get injured. I don't want to dislocate my knees, I don't want to get cramps while running, I don't want to fall down and tear any muscles, tendons or ligaments, I don't want anything that can force me into DNF (did not finish - a status for runners who had to quit mid event especially due to injuries). So what I did was, I jogged slowly. 

I started getting cramps at 16km onward and from there, I started having to walk and jog interchangeably because I couldn't stand the pain on both legs. It shot from the soles to both my knees and there was nothing I could do than man-up and swallow the pain. Pain is temporary anyways, it can't kill me yet. 

To my boyfriend Zachary, thank you for not stopping me from joining this run. He was worried at first and he actually did not want me to join 21km because he knew I wasn't ready for such torture. He simply knew that I wasn't fit enough for 21km as I only have done 1x 12km (Ambank KL Day Run 2016), 1x 6km obstacle run during Mad Warrior and 1x 10km run during Puma Night Run 2016. He decided to run by my side for the entire 21km at Putrajaya Night Marathon with the reason "you will not be disciplined if I leave your side" but deep down I know he's worried about me getting injured that's why he did not sprint off, haha! He can easily finish 21km in 2 hours but with me as an under-trained first timer, we clocked 3 hours and 14 minutes for 21km. My first 7km was in 34 minutes and I realized that I reached my limit after the 10th km. 

Whatever it is, I'm glad that I finished the run below 3.30 hours. I'm glad that I didn't DNF and I'm somehow grateful that I'm only getting the runner's knee after the run, not while running. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go tend to my blasted left knee XD thanks for reading and keep running!

Disclaimer : My entire sports attire and my participation fees to all running events so far are self-funded. This post is not sponsored by any parties. It's solely a personal account of mine. Thank you :)