*My New Jersey Marathon*
...... somewhere between Mile 15 and 16

My sunday morning was spent running running running.... 26.2 miles!! What can I say. It was a rather tiring experience? Haha. Here's a recap of the 26 miles that I thought would never end.

Ok before that, on Saturday I was in a state of panic. I suddenly realized that I was super duper unprepared. I didn't even know how to get to the location of the marathon to pick up my race packet... in the end got there at 6.30 (it closes at 7). Thankfully Jiamin's car held up fine as I finally made my way to this Howard Johnson hotel in Middletown, New Jersey. I called Alex, a friend I was running the marathon with and he told me they had checked into room number 208. So I told the lady at the reception, I have a friend who's staying at room 208. She was like, "We don't have a room 208 here." *HORROR* So guess what. I got the wrong hotel. BUT eventually i DID get to Wellsley (Wellesly/Well ley) Hotel where they were at. Oh oh then for dinner I ate a super not-good-for-marathon-next-morning dinner of... Friendly's Philly Cheesesteak Supermelt with a M&M 3 scoop sundae icecream. Yum. But after that I was thinking... crap I probably added 3 pounds of extra weight that will require a gazellion more calories to carry the next day.

Anyway, Sunday. The marathon starts at 8.30, and we champion champion never set alarm clock to get up. But heng I woke up at 6.30, and we managed to get out of the hotel by 6.45. Just when we were about to leave, Alex realizes that he doesn't have his race bib! Oh, and of course we forgot that we would need safety pins to pin the bib to our shirts, so had to get 4 sewing kits from the hotel counter and dig out the small pins inside. Ok.... so we finally make it to the carpark, where we'd park the car and take a bus to the starting point. We happily decided not to use the baggage service cos too mafan, so we change into our running attire and decided to dong the cold wind. Oh man... cold it certainly was. In my haste to get onto the bus, I cleverly left my mp3 player in the car. Which left me in an even greater state of panic cos I always run with mp3 music blasting in my ears so that I won't be counting down the miles or minutes. Anyway, bo bian. Zun zun reach the starting point at 8.30. Never stretch never warm up. (Actually it would have been futile trying to warm up too cos it was way too cold in the morning)

Before I knew it... start liao. The first mile was... cold. And stiff. By Mile 3 I thought... die lah how come I'm tired already... cannot make it man. But there were interesting conversations around me to listen to... so I decided to keep myself distracted by eavesdropping into conversations. Some of these runners super buay pai seh and show off lor... half their conversations are about "how I trained for 4 mths for this marathon and this is my number 20 dunno what marathon... blah blah blah". Of course, this made me feel even MORE tired cos I was thinking crap lah I Mile 3 already tired. Somewhere along Mile 3, I reach the first fluid station... I *tried* to drink the Gatorade (cos after the supermelt the night before I was feeling quite dehydrated) but it's quite a challenge to drink while running with the liquid sloshing ard in the cup. So instead of maluing myself and splashing the orange gatorade onto my nice white running shirt... i threw away the cup. HAHAHA.

At Mile 5 I started thinking stupid things like... eh my right shoe doesn't feel tight enough, should I stop to tighten it? My left hand fingernails very long... will I cut myself? My watch strap too loose... very distracting. But *slap slap* managed to stop thinking those thoughts...

Blah blah blah... Actually the first part I was running quite fast, like 9 minute miles... which is like... 6.7 miles per hour? Yah I did 7 miles in 1 hour 3 minutes I think. But of course erm... couldn't keep that up for long. Mile 13.1 -- half way done, and it was 1h57 min i think. But I was like "oh man means I have to run whatever I ran ALL OVER AGAIN". And I thought my thighs were telling me they are going to cramp soon due to my stubborness to drink water. And I told them well if you don't cramp I go back to Penn will drink lots of water. (hahahha yah right you silly thighs muahaha).

*oh, side note... the scenery was absolutely fantastic. Got lighthouse lah, coast lah, waves lah... boathouses lah, ships lah, seagulls lah... sun glittering on the water lah... everything very nice. I'm sure if I would have appreciated it much much more if my legs could stop for awhile*

ANYWAY... back to mile 14. Mile 14 was very long leh. And so was 15 actually. At mile 15 I pass the finishing line... WAH LAU THAT'S SUCH A BAD ARRANGEMENT LOR. Cos after mile 15 it's a loop... run further down, then loop back and end. So at mile 15 you see the finishing line beside you and you think... I want to U-turn!! After a few minutes.... the eventual champion runs past me on the other side of the road... he's done in less than 2 hours 30 min i think. Crap. And I knew I had about 1 and a half hours left. And he was sprinting lor.... so with a heavy heart (and even heavier legs) I plough on.

Mile 16-19 passed quite fast. I dunno why. I wasn't really thinking already... I was counting cones. And traffic lights. And lampposts. I told myself, want to walk also cannot start walking before Mile 20. Confirm stop liao won't start again. Oh, I remember having an image of a big snail beside me crawling faster than me. Hahahaha

Mile 21-- they actually gave out oranges and bananas... wah lau how to eat orange while running??? Oh worse still... I saw this woman puke. Damn gross lor lucky I never eat anything or else would have felt super nauseous too.

Mile 23. Wah cannot take it liao had to STOP STOP STOP. Pay me 1000 bucks not to stop I also would have stopped. So I did. and walked for 2 minutes and then felt damn bad.... how can how can... waste time!! The more I walk, the more I'll want to continue walking!! Cannot cannot... so started running (or jogging) again. Wah... that last 3.2 miles were erm.... rather torturous? I bet they move the cones further apart and spaced the lampposts further apart too lor cos it took me FOREVER to get from one lamppost to the next. Oh and there were these 2 dudes beside me who would sprint a bit... then walk a lot then sprint again then walk again. Which was soooo irritating cos they would overtake me and make me feel like shit, then drop behind me again, then over take me again blah blah blah.

Ok fast forward.... FINISH. They actually announce your name as you cross the line... like, "No.366, Jasmin Lau from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!". 4 hours 22.something minutes! I was like WTF lah who cares anyway I'm done give me my finishers' medal I need a drink don't block me anymore. Then... I thought... wah so cool I just ran a marathon!!!! (but siam lah dun block me I need water stop playing loud obnoxious music and eating popcorn).

Actually I thought i'd be flat on the ground when I'm done. But i'm still alive and kicking and walking. But my knees hurt a lot and I ended up with a major headache at night (probably due to the deadly sun+wind combination). Yah I think marathons do irreversible damage to your legs cos I think my meniscus in my knees have probably been worn out even more, not that they were very healthy in the first place.

Would I run another one again? You bet. Shiok lah when you finish. And confirm must beat my own timing mah... but I think for the next few days...... sit ard and nuah sounds like a good idea :)