2hr 24min 22sec - Cheingmai SEA GAMES 1995 (Part 2)

Thailand, Cheingmai South East Games 1995 (Part 2)

Picture 1 - Picture of me during Dec 1994, Singapore International Marathon


Note: Details are too long, hence the summary.


Second Part of Summary 1995 SEA Games marathon in Chiengmai.
The race started and it was pitched dark, I could not see anything except a motorbike infront of us guiding. I was with the pack of runners and we heard a pack of dogs barking. I realized that if I let the front pack go, I imagined that I may get bitten by these dogs and may end my marathon dream by ending in the hospital instead.

Picture 2 - A group of street dogs were barking ferociously at us while we were running. However, we were lucky that it did not attack.

During the run, I realised that Herman Suizo, the then SEA GAMES marathon record holder from Phillipines was trying to push the pace by injecting some pace surges. Everytime he did that, we kept coming back. At the 5km, I saw the time as 16min 40sec. At this point, one part of me told me that this was very painful and was thinking of slowing down a bit. Nevertheless,at the 10km mark, we reached there between 33min 20sec. I realised that the pace that I was going was at 2hrs 18min to 2hrs 20min pace.

As the six of us, myself, the two Indonesians, two Filipinos and a Thai athlete, were all coming to the half marathon point, I realised that nobody were willing to give up. This was very discouraging for me, in a way. The time stood at the half-way mark at 1hrs 10min. Soon, I realised that this time was in fact equal to my personal best time for the half-marathon done in the Trengganu Half - Marathon race in the past, and the distance was actually measured by AIMS.

Picture 3 - At the half-way point, I reached at 1hr 10min.

At this point, Phillipines runner by the name of Herman Suizo gave up and stopped during the race. We were 5 people together finally. At the 23km, I surged to the front since I felt very strong. At this point I saw the two Indonesians feeling very tired. There was a Thai runner and Allan from Phillipines as well. From a 20m gap away from me the Phillipines runner, Allan, and the Thai runner came back to me.

Between 25km and 30km mark, we reached the point on time for a 2hr 20min or a sub 2hrs 20min. At this point, I could not take the severe pain any more and I was bearing with the pain. Whatever it was, I was still thinking of getting the gold and still pursued the 4 of them. At the last 10km, I realised that I can win all these runners as I am able to bear the pain until 32km. My heart and lungs felt strong. Physically, I felt very strong. Victory was in sight. However, from the last 10km to last 7km, my calf began to tighten a lot. I was telling myself to relax the calf by mentally talking to my muscles. Things got even worse and the calf pain was becoming more excruciating to the point that I wanted to stop the race.

Pic 4 - The calf strain was getting worse as long as I am in the front pack from 35km mark onwards.

 

 Note :

Herman Suizo was also a former national record holder (2:19.50) of Philippines who placed 51st among 116 runners in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

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