I am a speed-walking virgin, and the Starwalk 2008 was indeed my first experience of such marathon. Since i've only tried long-distance running during my undergrad years, speed-walking is definitely more strenous than I thought it is!!
My sister agreed to join the competition category with me. :) This year, there were at least 14000 participants at the Penang StarWalk. That was amazingly a huge crowd! There were quite a lot of professional speedwalkers, especially the males.
i well knew that speedwalking demands lots of motivation and stamina. With only 2 weeks of last-minute training, i was pessimistic about keeping my pace at a constant speed for the entire 10km walk. And so i thought it would be a good idea to spot some speedwalkers who were walking at a perfect pace for me to catch up with.
I spotted a young lady in her late 20's with a trim and spare figure of a marathon walker; I think she is even smaller than I am!! Her arm swings were swift, and she moved with a spectacular pace, well-coordinated with her feet movement. She didnt make giant steps, but one thing was that she kept to a constant speed, so she hardly slowed down. Her graceful movement really made me gazed in awe! I followed her pace and immitated her rhythm. It was pretty strenous at first, but after a while, i found myself walking comfortably at the pace she was walking. I tagged behind her closely, but never did overtake her.
I could only manage to follow her for the first 4-ish kilometres, until an Indian guy came tapping on my shoulder. The guy pointed at my right foot, and gahhhhhhhh, then did i realise my shoe lace was loose!!! I was so reluctant to make a halt, but i knew i had to. Hastily, i went to the side of the road and had my shoelace tied up. As i looked up, the lady whom i was tailing a while ago was no longer in my sight. I somewhat lost my motivation to carry on initially. I got up anyway and continued to walk, but i knew i was going slower than i was in the first half of the course.
Along the way, I continued to follow a couple of other speedwalkers, but at some stretch, i was merely walking at a leisure speed... It's really amazing how the true speedwalkers keep themselves motivated to go at a constant speed without much slowing down. I really admire those speedwalking marathoners.
I was already sweating from head to toe when i finally saw the finishing banner. As i hit the finishing point, i heaved a big sigh of relief. My time was 1:16:14.
To my surprise, i then realised that i was under the women junior veterans category. I actually did feel strange when i saw many women in their 30's or 40's in the same category i was in. lol! My sister reached shortly after, making it to be entitled the certificate of completion below 2 hours as well (I'm so proud of her, coz she hardly had time to train up prior to the walk!)
we then checked the list of winners, and to yet another surprise, I saw my number on the 13th placing. we were both really laughing our lungs out as i would be getting a medal for the wrong category; the Junior VETERANS' category! I guess there must be some confusion during the registration... That being said, if i were to be in the Womens' Open category, my placing could have been pulled down to 25th or so as there were more participants in that category.
I was glad anyway and we had great fun that sunday. lots of free-flow drinks. lots of free gifts. plenty of lucky draw prizes, none of which were we able to grab home though. And to bring home a medal was not what i expected for at the end of the day, so i was really counting my blessings. More importantly is that i learnt to appreciate the art of speedwalking. I hope there will be a return to popularity of speedwalking among the people, so you won't get stared for walking with such awkward and strange-looking mode of locomotion!
Digress. After a tiring walk that Sunday, i thought i should just reward myself with the Elle dress which i was yearning to get earlier on. It was on sales anyway in Queensbay, so i made a second trip there just for that. :)
Some photos to follow:
My sister agreed to join the competition category with me. :) This year, there were at least 14000 participants at the Penang StarWalk. That was amazingly a huge crowd! There were quite a lot of professional speedwalkers, especially the males.
i well knew that speedwalking demands lots of motivation and stamina. With only 2 weeks of last-minute training, i was pessimistic about keeping my pace at a constant speed for the entire 10km walk. And so i thought it would be a good idea to spot some speedwalkers who were walking at a perfect pace for me to catch up with.
I spotted a young lady in her late 20's with a trim and spare figure of a marathon walker; I think she is even smaller than I am!! Her arm swings were swift, and she moved with a spectacular pace, well-coordinated with her feet movement. She didnt make giant steps, but one thing was that she kept to a constant speed, so she hardly slowed down. Her graceful movement really made me gazed in awe! I followed her pace and immitated her rhythm. It was pretty strenous at first, but after a while, i found myself walking comfortably at the pace she was walking. I tagged behind her closely, but never did overtake her.
I could only manage to follow her for the first 4-ish kilometres, until an Indian guy came tapping on my shoulder. The guy pointed at my right foot, and gahhhhhhhh, then did i realise my shoe lace was loose!!! I was so reluctant to make a halt, but i knew i had to. Hastily, i went to the side of the road and had my shoelace tied up. As i looked up, the lady whom i was tailing a while ago was no longer in my sight. I somewhat lost my motivation to carry on initially. I got up anyway and continued to walk, but i knew i was going slower than i was in the first half of the course.
Along the way, I continued to follow a couple of other speedwalkers, but at some stretch, i was merely walking at a leisure speed... It's really amazing how the true speedwalkers keep themselves motivated to go at a constant speed without much slowing down. I really admire those speedwalking marathoners.
I was already sweating from head to toe when i finally saw the finishing banner. As i hit the finishing point, i heaved a big sigh of relief. My time was 1:16:14.
To my surprise, i then realised that i was under the women junior veterans category. I actually did feel strange when i saw many women in their 30's or 40's in the same category i was in. lol! My sister reached shortly after, making it to be entitled the certificate of completion below 2 hours as well (I'm so proud of her, coz she hardly had time to train up prior to the walk!)
we then checked the list of winners, and to yet another surprise, I saw my number on the 13th placing. we were both really laughing our lungs out as i would be getting a medal for the wrong category; the Junior VETERANS' category! I guess there must be some confusion during the registration... That being said, if i were to be in the Womens' Open category, my placing could have been pulled down to 25th or so as there were more participants in that category.
I was glad anyway and we had great fun that sunday. lots of free-flow drinks. lots of free gifts. plenty of lucky draw prizes, none of which were we able to grab home though. And to bring home a medal was not what i expected for at the end of the day, so i was really counting my blessings. More importantly is that i learnt to appreciate the art of speedwalking. I hope there will be a return to popularity of speedwalking among the people, so you won't get stared for walking with such awkward and strange-looking mode of locomotion!
Digress. After a tiring walk that Sunday, i thought i should just reward myself with the Elle dress which i was yearning to get earlier on. It was on sales anyway in Queensbay, so i made a second trip there just for that. :)
Some photos to follow:
2 comments:
CONGRATS!!!!! haiyo.. ini mesti more to running than walking ni... ehehe
for a moment when i was reading it, i somehow wondered if i was really reading my sister's blog.
nevertheless woho!!! here's to my sisters and my wonderful studly nephew (with that stranger at the back)! hahaha.. cheers!
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