Hitting the Wall

In running, they have a term when your body simply just don't want to run anymore many times reducing yourself to walking. They call it "The Wall". Well, I just hit it at mile 19 of my run last Sunday. Yes, I was reduced to simply walking the last kilometer of the scheduled run, my back aching and the knees about to give up holding my body. Not that I wanted to expect it but I have the notion to feel it, and to learn from it in the process.

That damn Sunday run was the most tiresome run so far in my short, exciting and injury filled running days. It took it everything I got especially the last 2k. The run was the longest in the training, 32 kilometers of almost non stop running the paved roads of 3 cities including two climbs on Cebu-Mactan twin bridges. I have done 3 hours of running but this one, a four hour run, was something I call uncharted waters. They say you would hit the wall at 32K without sufficient training. I hit it a kilometer ahead with my very insufficient training, I would say with the injury I had in the last months. I even ran with blood oooozing from my nipples which made me look like a runner who got shot in the chest.

I'm glad I've finished it. I'm glad I felt the wall hit me like a brick. It made me realize how difficult running a marathon is and in the process made me realize that I could with my heart run through the last 10k to finish one. The injury came back after the run, maybe because it was after all unwise for me to run so long so close to an injury.

Two weeks of resting beckons me before I start to condition my body for the big day. Yes. I would be running the full marathon this January with or without the pain. It make it doubly exciting, scary but hey I like challenges and this is one challenge I would not let myself pass. Now where the registration paper I'll sign?