It has been a long while since I did anything more than 10km because of a flu and slight sore on my right tibia. Furthermore, work has constantly denied me the opportunity of joining my running friends to train together. 

So, yesterday evening, I’ve decided to cover a distance that I’ve never attempted before in preparation of the upcoming KL marathon. And that was to run from home to Tampines and back. 

The distance (twice the length of the red line) was 30km, 2km more than the longest distance I’ve tried previously. The night was cool, and I started my run comfortably.

1st 10km:

I started at 8:45pm. It was an easy 10km for me, as this has become my usual running distance. 1 hr and 5 min to cover the first ten.

10-20km: 

It was still quite comfortable from the 10th to 16th km, thereafter which I began to feel the fatigue. My Pocari Sweat drink was all drunk up. I stopped by at a petrol station to get a bottle of H2O, stealing a rest at the same time. I could sense my speed decreasing a little as I went on to complete the first 20 km. I took 1 hr and 8 min to complete the next 10 km.

Last 10km:

Well, this part was the most stressful part of my run, because my energy was depleting exponentially. Luckily, I had brought along a packet of Power Gel to replenish some energy. My pace dropped considerably, and I had to blast my ipod Shuffle to distract myself from the gruelling last 5 km. Legs got increasingly sore, and my left thigh was on the verge of getting cramps. Lack of sodium, I suppose. I started to use the run-walk technique for the last 3 km, and I was practically checking my Polar watch every 10 seconds to see if I was reaching the 30km mark. Finally, I completed at 12:20am. Time taken for the last 10km: 1 hr 19 min.

All in all, it was a good run. The run was 12km shy of the full marathon distance, and I’ve now gained more confidence in being able to do a sub-6hr for my first marathon. I’ll probably need to fine-tune my pace a little, such as starting off at a slower pace and conserve more energy for the later half of the run.  20 more days to the KL marathon!

Total time: 3 hr 32 min 14 sec

Total distance: 30 km

Pace: 7:04 min/km (Average)