Racing Qatar 2011 - Finding myself

I know that I’m very competitive person. I’m not sure if I was born with it or got this attitude “Be better than the others” from my mum telling me that when I was young, but I just am!! And basically in everything, everybody and always. Maybe sometimes I’m not showing it, but trust me…I’m thinking about it J

Especially in physical activities, because it’s the easiest. I was doing sports whole my life, but nothing and never on competitions, although I tried to win whatever small unofficial race or simple strength challenge I got in to. And I used to take all those very seriously, because only then it got that extra twist, those last 10% and the enjoyment was complete!! But somehow I’ve never thought about getting into real racing. I was always up to any competition somebody offered me to join, but I was not pursuing it on my own…until December 2010 when I was offered to participate in Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge.

      Why this sudden change of attitude came now and not before? Because it’s not fun racing when you have no chance to win J Last two years my lifestyle and environment around me changed, I slowly found more and more time to do sports and some focused training and my physical condition improved to a level I’ve never been to. And seeing that I could keep up and measure myself with international competition opened my eyes, showed me the way and filled with motivation…I saw a chance to be better than the others, compete and win…so I grabbed it and went for it!!!

And my first challenge was not far away, Dubai International Marathon on 28^th of January 2011. And let’s face it…this was not a race I could possibly win. This would be just me against JIRI and time!! Last two years I did the 10k version and set a company record with 39:56.  I don’t know if 62^nd place overall is especially impressive, but I felt that longer I go, better I am, so after going 80k in Abu Dhabi Challenge I tried my first 42k MARATHON.

During night training in Qatari wasteland I was able to do twice a week half-marathon at 14km/h so I said myself a goal “Let’s try to do it at 12km/h…should work!”

And it worked J As always I ran late to the start, didn’t have time to “drop off” some extra weight, Ipod battery was flat and I was starting from the end of the field, but somehow it didn’t matter. I watched my speed every kilometer and constantly progressed forward through the field lined up with cheering spectators.

Drinking Gatorade every 10k and eating one energy gel every 45 minutes I was feeling great and enjoying the run. After the half turn I even speeded up a bit, but exactly as Jaro said the crisis start coming around kilometer 30. Somehow I feel weaker, closer I’m to the finish and 10k to go is pretty close…in comparison to the whole thing!! So my legs started to hurt, pace shortened, breath rate increased and felt I’m draining last bits of energy. But the goal was there and was sure that I can make it. I suppressed the pain and pushed my numb legs forward.

3:24:45 means I completed my goal, made a decent result and 124^th place from 1100 I value more that 62^nd from 3150 in 10k last year J I was happy, but not 100%, because I knew I could do better…next time!! That’s the racing spirit J