Participated in my first marathon on the 31st of Jan, although did only the 5km run. This was Chandigarh’s first marathon ever and there was a huge turn out. About 3000 odd people ran the 5km section and the spirit was huge. The run was great… I managed to run continuously, which was a big high. I was always worried about not managing to run at a steady pace without getting out of breath. The couple of times I tried slowing down, my legs felt kind of wobbly, so it seemed more comfortable to keep running at a slow pace.
It was a bright sunny day, with a lot of people standing on the roadside taking pictures and cheering us on. Some schools had their kids out in uniforms to cheer the runners. A roundabout had a school band playing. All in all, very motivating to run alongside a whole bunch of enthusiastic people. Yasho was right in saying “when you run with others, it gives you wings”.
As per my Nike sportband, the distance was 5.8 km, time taken – 35:44 minutes, and a mere 312 calories burnt. So sad… that just about takes care of the banana I ate before starting the run.
My legs are kind of cramped today, but a workout at the gym this evening helped. Luckily my knees don’t hurt, so I should be good to go for the next run scheduled on the coming Wednesday!
So far, so good! There’s a huge sense of freedom in running. I love it!
Thanks Kulwant, you were part of the motivation to attempt the run, not that 5km was a big deal really... the challenge is yet to happen and I'm training for it as well.