ASICS HALF MARATHON 2004
Through the eyes of Tamyka Bell
Page 2
It seemed obvious to me
that they wouldn't hold the pace much longer and that made it
even more frustrating. It was hot in the group and people were
elbowing me, nearly spitting on me, etc. and many of them had
not deodorised that morning; it was hard to concentrate and I
wasn't enjoying it at all. I was trying to decide whether I
should slow down and then bang! I got hit with a stitch like
I've never had before and nearly fell over right there.
I thought about giving in
At that point, I guess my decision was made for me. There was no
way I could do the next kilometer in 4:15 and there was
certainly no way I would be able to run fast enough later to
make up the lost time. I was just about ready to pull out. I
thought I would throw up.
Words of
wisdom from the Y FRONT man helped
But the talk from the day
before was in my mind - I told myself "Lee ran with a torn
rectus abdominus, right? So dammit, I can run with a little
stitch." At the end of the race I heard someone talking about
people who run like a spac and I thought "yep, that was me, I
was one of them!" but I thought it with pride - because I was
trying to stretch out my side and apply pressure while still
running. It must have looked hilarious. That kilometer nearly
killed me; I must have been closer to 5 min/km pace. Not cool,
and there goes my race plan as the blue balloon vanished into
the distance.
Thank God for GU
And unlike my first race two years ago, when I had humbly
started right at the back of the race and, as a result, spent
the first 16 km passing people, this time people were passing
me. It was awful, because as they ran I knew I should have been
faster than them. But as I kept shuffling, the stitch subsided.
I took a careful sip of water from my fuel belt, a quick suck of
GU and another sip of water and started to pick up the pace.
I was running solo
I started to relax again. For me a large part of running is the
joy of movement, the wind in my hair, the feel of it. So now
that I was pretty much on my own, I started to feel good. I
knew that without someone in front I was working harder for the
same pace but it felt easier because it was familiar - it was
just me and the road again. It wasn't easy; it still hurt and I
knew I had done way too much damage too early - thank God it was
only the half marathon!
It was a painful lesson......
Sure enough, I started to pass people. I saw a lot of the
people from the 1h 30 min pace group. They too had been
optimistic and gone out way too fast. It was a painful lesson
but it was good to find my limits and it was even better that it
happened early, so I could recover and re-evaluate my race plan.
I picked my new pace -
comfortable but very, very hard. Despite my jelly-legs, it was
working. I passed through the 10 km mark only a minute behind my
PB in a time of 44:13 - not a bad recovery for someone who
nearly pulled out after the first 5 km!
As I approached the turnaround, I saw the pace group headed my
way. They looked smaller, and when they passed I checked my
watch. About 75 seconds later I hit the turnaround. I was only
2 1/2 minutes behind them and I knew I would still beat 1 h 40
min!
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