I tried , I failed and that’s OK : My Story of Buriram Marathon 2021
It was just me , my stride, the road under my feet and the sound of my breaths. Even I lost almost all of my power , I felt so calm and peaceful
Pre Race
It was quite a relief feeling when I knew that Buriram Marathon had been postponed for 2 more months. Originally, the event was on January 24th 2021. Yes it was winter season in Thailand but I was quite not ready for it.
New race date was set at Saturday March 27th, 2021. I was a night run and the start time is around 6.30pm.
It’s going to be great as I have more than 60 days to run, strength train and taper. But I have no clue that this is going to be the toughest marathon I have ever run since my first at Laguna Phuket Marathon in 2011.
Training went ups and downs during January as I felt a bit of overtrained and lack of motivation to run 5-6 days /week.
I made sure that February and March were very important 8 weeks training block that 2-3.30 hours long run, 80-100 km running volume and speed works must be included.
With a full time job as a Sports Lab Specialist at STAGE Find The Real U, I could easily mange time to run and strength train as many hours as I can.
Race day
I arrived Buriram one day prior of event and made sure that I have nutrient dense meal, lots of sleep and sodium pre loading.
The air was quite thick and heavy on the day I arrive and I can felt the extreme heat from the wind.
Weather forecast from my phone reported that it would be 30-35 c during the race but the real feel would be around 37-39c
I felt nothing about the heat. Actually I have run with hot weather for all my life. Also, my last 3 long run were all started at 4.30 pm and I did it by not much efforts. On that moment, I still believed that I can finish this marathon at least under 4 hrs.
I started in block no.1 which is right the front of the start line. On my left I saw 3.45 hr and 4 hr pacers. When the gun went off, I decided to go with 3.45 hrs pacer.
0-10 km
“Too fast for this weather condition!” I told my self after just 1-2 km with 3.45 hrs pacers. Then I slowed down a bit and join 4 hrs pacers.
Honestly. it was quite an easy pace.
“Wow, Easy Peasy !”
My body and brain can definitely hold this pace for 42 km. That was my thought and feeling on that moment.
I reached my first 5 km around 28 minutes which is acceptable if I would like to finish well in this marathon. But after this 5 km marked I have to take a little break by jog through water station which cause me around 0.30 to 1.00 min behind sub 4hrs pacer.
11-20 km
I caught up with the group again after 10 km marked. During that phase I felt super strong and superb. But experience taught me that I should not push or do anything extreme.
“Hold your pace.This is marathon and it’s not 5 or 10 km”
21-30 km
I reach half marathon point at 2.03 hrs. Obviously, I lost contact with sub 4hrs group and had to pace my self alone. It was probably the most shocking and frustrating phase of this marathon. As the night fall but the heat was still at large. My body did not cooperate well with me and I sometimes had to walk during water station just to cool down and refuel for extra electrolyte and calorie.
31-42 km
After I fully accepted and was able to swallow the truth that I was not gonna have a good result on this race. It was such a liberate feeling and I just really did not care how fast I have to run.
It was just me , my stride, the road under my feet and the sound of my breaths. Even I lost almost all of my power , I felt so calm and peaceful.
Post Race
I finished the race at 4.37 hrs. It was absolutely not a good result. Actually, It was a catastrophic. As I have never plan to run this long.
Mixed of feeling hit me at the finish line as I knew I should be happy and grateful for what I did and how great that I could manage all this mishaps and finish the race.
The extreme hot weather conditions , lack of race pace running in hot weather and lack of mental training might be reasons of my under perform result.
Yes I felt disappointed. Who wouldn’t?
After 4-5 months of dedicated training with lots of sacrifice and time limitation. I still could not produce a good marathon result. I think this was the hardest truth I have to accept and swallow.
On the bright side, I really felt like marathon was not too long any more. Deep down I still strongly believe that I am capable of 3.40-3.45 hrs marathon.
At the end of the day, I just want to share with you that it’s ok to try and fail and I am just like you who still trying for a better results.
*But for this marathon
I tried.
I failed
And that’s OK.
*
TC Triathlon
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