Tuesday 18 August 2009

Tough Run

I’m an endurance runner. I shit out 100 meters like a trail of bunny droppings.

Today, that was not the case.

350 m into my scheduled 8KM run and I start getting side stitches. Three Hundred and Fifty Meters! And I was jogging at a pace of 9 KM/H! Nine Kilometers an Hour! Bad bad bad. The stabbing pain got so bad that even before I hit the 1 KM mark, I walked a bit (20-30s) before I started jogging again at my slow-ass pace.

At the end of 27 minutes, I had finished 4 KM. Half way mark. The pain had subsided quite a bit and I thought I could up the ante.

Next 4 KM I ran at a pace of 6:00/KM (10KM/H). It was not easy mind you. Again, the side stitches started before the end of the first KM, but I kept on going.

At the end of the next 24 minutes, I had finished the final 4 KM.

Total time: 51 minutes.

And yes, I was drained. Rather than finishing an 8 KM it felt as if I had run 30 KM. I was tired and inactive for the next two hours, before I got some energy to walk and talk.

This is extremely disappointing and frustrating. Before I fell ill, I was in the best shape of my life. I would have even said that I was ready to run the full marathon. A week before, I ran my 20 miler and finished strongly. Now I'm struggling with an 8KM.

Will I be able to run my first full marathon as scheduled? I don't know.

2 comments:

Rake said...

cmon man..its just temporary..all you need is a good run to get that confidence up!

Rohit said...

Yeah, well ... no. My hopes are completely dashed now. I fell ill again and I'm again in the recovery stage.