On 3/10/2021 I ran my first marathon in 2021and it is not even a mass marathon where all the fun are. It is the virtual Virgin London Marathon. This is my second year in a roll taking part in the marathon where the registration fee is £38. There are together 50k participants for the actual and virtual marathon. This time I was joined by Paul who ran the virtual marathon even though he is staying in London. We were both unsuccessful in our bid to get a slot in the actual marathon in London and offered the virtual one. It is a blessing in disguise for me as I will definitely unable to travel to London for the actual marathon when Malaysia is imposing strict overseas travelling restrictions due to serious covid pandemic in the country.
I splitted my 42 km run which must be completed in 24 hours into 2 half marathons, in the morning and evening. I chose the easiest route around Taiping lake garden where there is less traffic and almost flat route. It is a 3 km loop and I just have to run round the loop 7 times with my car parked besides the loop serving as my water station. I did not consume any energy gel which I usually do while running a full marathon. I just replenish my energy by consuming a piece a banana.
As I suffered slight knee injury while training for the marathon so I only ran slowly intermittent with some brisk walking. I managed to finish my 1st half marathon in 3:30 monitored by my garmin watch. After resting for 5 hours I resumed the marathon and the in -between break did not help much in reducing my fatigue. My 2nd half marathon was much slower that is 3:45. Total time covered was7 hours 15 minutes but tracking apps provided by the organiser gave my total active time as 6 hours and 54 minutes. Just wonder the London Marathon tracking apps or my garmin watch is accurate. I started my run at 8:15 in the morning and by the time I completed my run it was already 8:30 pm. It was a hard and tedious run but totally please that I managed to complete the splitted full
I did not receive my running bib this time and really hope that my hard earned finisher tee and medal will arrived safely at my doorstep three weeks later. My next virtual run will be the KL Standard Chartered Marathon some time in December.
