#35 - Brooks Half Marathon 2013, and the subsequent self-realization

As it stands for now, my PR for half-marathon is still 2:04.44, set at the 2012 edition of the Seremban Half. But then, that was then, when things are still a bit, um, different...

One person, however, is not feeling as victorious...

There was a few mental notes that I had made prior to the race; one chiefly being that to finish the race at all would be an incentive. One thing that only hit me a day or two after the race day of the fact of how much I have fallen behind, physically.

The conclusion of the Brooks Half, as it turns out, is a low point for me - made ironic by the teeny weeny trophy medal I received at the finishing line - of how I have actually regressed, and not the opposite. I am getting slower, not faster; my legs are hurting more, all over the place, rather than feeling as fresh as a horse...

Whee...~wait, fresh as a what? Why am I in a metaphor?

The self-realization here is that I might be suffering from burnout.

Yeah...

Well boo-fucking-hoo

The regression is such that I have gone from targeting a sub-2 hours finish to a sub-2:40 finish, all in a timespan of less than a year. That started with the Seremban Half (a 2:04), followed by the PJ Half (2:11 - marred by a last 1km calf strain), followed by the Penang Bridge Marathon (HM in 2:19 - lack of sleep was the perpetrator, plus the humid condition), and now this.

Well, I suppose luck plays a major part in this, as time and time again it proves itself to be quite a cruel, heartless bitch that it is...

So now I am three-fifth Bad Luck Brian, and the rest one-fifths of Good Guy Greg, and Forever Alone guy.

Thus, I'm taking a break - break from running, break from reading about running, break from even thinking about running, and even break from blogging about running. I've had enough of it. I'm leaving running...

All for a good one week. Yeah - just one week. Then it's back to light training for three days, then a (possible) trip to a physio and see how I'm actually holding up physically.

A bowl of tow huay! There is a loving God!

Other thing that I gathered from the race, apart from the ultra-long line for the breakfast, and the amazing bowl of tow huay (Oh I love tow huay), and the lack of isotonic drinks at all the water stations (or was that just my bad luck?), and the lack of photographers along the race (or was that just my bad luck?), is the presence of honkers, or horn-blazers.

Or assholes.

Lots of impatient driver living around Bukit Jalil as it seems, blaring their horn endlessly as if that will make the traffic move at their will. Look: I know it's a pain in the ass when you have to actually get somewhere but then were held up in a traffic because thousands of people are running up ahead.

I'm a driver too - I understand the sentiment.

Here, the mighty trophy medal sizes up with a laptop speaker...

But... ah well, not quite sure how to end this, but you guys are just terrible. Even scumbag like Chris Brown I can stand.

And here it is again, sizing up with a mouse...

I remember going for a run at lots of other places, where drivers on road are held up as well, and they all behaved like a civilized people that they are. You know - tolerance. We're all road tax payers as well, the money that we all knew went into paying for a Korean superstar that did not appear to toss the yee sang. Please, don't be such a...

And... the inevitable comparison.

...dick.