30th March, 2014:
After a devastating run on the previous Sunday in which I only managed a paltry
18km and picked an ankle injury in the process, I decided to take it easy as
much as it was supposed to be my 90km week.
I decided to take long walks
while monitoring my ankle. By Wednesday 26th, I decided to do an
evening run just to ascertain or assess how far off my foot is from normalcy. I
started out slow and gained momentum as I progressed. Evening runs are kinda
draining but I pulled through with a 100mins in 22kms – 13.06kms/hr. My ankle
was burning and I had to cool it real quick.
Moving forward, I set my eyes on
36kms long run (sub 4’30” average pace) and based on that notion I decided to
take a break till Sunday for the long run. And boy that day was came – I dreaded
it!
I left the house at exactly 6am
and started with 2 laps around Inner core and with a steady pace of sub 4’30”.
By the time I joined Manyanja road with 8kms tucked in (34.47mins) while quietly
telling myself ‘today my legs are gonna get it’.
Start feeling the effects upon
reaching City Stadium – 15kms. Get some obstruction from zombified walkers at
Muthurwa who just don’t get out of the way as much as they see me coming so I
run through two guys on separate occasions and mess my tempo in the process but
I gradually recover.
I reach the Upper Hill climb at
the 19th kilometer, a hard climb it is but pull a 5’20” nonetheless.
The sun comes out at the 22nd km and the air suddenly goes dry.
Restrain myself from bursting downhill and cleaning my tank a little too early.
Maintain focus all the way to Lunga lunga and that’s where the real workout
began. Attain 27kms in sub 2hrs, it seems 28kms will still need a bit of work
but I have my eyes set on it this coming month – April.
Hit 30kms in 2:13 and my throat
becomes more dry and my legs more heavy. This is where mental toughness comes
into play. I ignore my crying feet and burning throat and forge ahead, vow to
get close to home as much as possible before I stop coz I know that once I stop
then there will be no more running. I could barely lift my feet off the ground
but kept going until I joined Manyanja road. The Outer ring/Manynja junction is
a mess with Kayole buses jamming the place – its smoky and dusty. Try to get a
way through but cant, all avenues are clogged by the church goers or so they
seem (mostly women) who feel they are so well dressed and have a right of way.
At this point I decide to just stop and let them pass through and that’s how my
run ended – 34.19kms! I curse myself for starting the run late; I should’ve
started the run a little earlier – maybe quarter to 6am things would’ve been
different.
Walk the remaining two
kilometers, I can’t even run walk. The moment I attempt, my feet literally
scream and that’s when I realized, I am spent. My ankle injury must have
retreated in some corner somewhere coz I just couldn’t feel it!
Running is hard - Hard labour, pure and simple and that's what makes it great!
The run ended abruptly and I
failed to get to my target but I achieved a new P.R. nonetheless – 34kms in
2:32, that’s the longest run I’ve ever had!
| Kilometer | Time | Avg Pace |
| 1 | 4:26 | 4'26"/km |
| 2 | 8:45 | 4'19"/km |
| 3 | 13:04 | 4'19"/km |
| 4 | 17:24 | 4'20"/km |
| 5 | 21:43 | 4'19"/km |
| 6 | 25:58:00 | 4'15"/km |
| 7 | 30:23:00 | 4'25"/km |
| 8 | 34:47:00 | 4'24"/km |
| 9 | 39:14:00 | 4'27"/km |
| 10 | 43:44:00 | 4'30"/km |
| 11 | 48:12:00 | 4'28"/km |
| 12 | 52:34:00 | 4'22"/km |
| 13 | 56:55:00 | 4'21"/km |
| 14 | 1:01:24 | 4'29"/km |
| 15 | 1:05:51 | 4'27"/km |
| 16 | 1:10:17 | 4'26"/km |
| 17 | 1:15:00 | 4'43"/km |
| 18 | 1:19:29 | 4'29"/km |
| 19 | 1:24:49 | 5'20"/km |
| 20 | 1:29:33 | 4'44"/km |
| 21 | 1:33:56 | 4'23"/km |
| 22 | 1:37:59 | 4'03"/km |
| 23 | 1:42:14 | 4'15"/km |
| 24 | 1:46:39 | 4'25"/km |
| 25 | 1:51:01 | 4'22"/km |
| 26 | 1:55:30 | 4'29"/km |
| 27 | 1:59:54 | 4'24"/km |
| 28 | 2:04:19 | 4'25"/km |
| 29 | 2:08:48 | 4'29"/km |
| 30 | 2:13:28 | 4'40"/km |
| 31 | 2:18:08 | 4'40"/km |
| 32 | 2:22:51 | 4'43"/km |
| 33 | 2:27:42 | 4'51"/km |
| 34 | 2:32:36 | 4'54"/km |
This has been a good month since it has yielded some good results - Final tally is a cumulative total of 302.20kms in 22hrs 51mins and 48sec at an average pace of 4mins 32secs per kilometer - 12runs with an average of 25.1kms in each run. Thats a record I am looking forward to revise soon but first lets get back to the process!
EAT | SLEEP | CONQUER | REPEAT
