30^th September 2012 was the date when I completed my first half marathon. I said ‘completed’, not ‘ran’, because I’d mixed running with walking like one dilutes scotch with soda, where the proportion of latter keeps increasing as the hours progress.

Nonetheless, it was no mean achievement – freaking 21kms is no evening stroll! More so when you consider that my preparation for the race was nothing more than Justin Bieber’s vocal training before a song recording.

I always knew (believed) I would find a way to complete the run. It was more of a reality distortion field (a.k.a Steve Jobs) than running in the field. I was counting on the Law of Attraction more than the Logic of Action. But when I actually crossed the finish line I was more than surprised. In fact, I wasn’t just surprised that I actually did it; I was more amused by how ridiculously easy it was.

Of course when I say ridiculously easy I am not taking into account the unbearable exhaustion I felt after the half-way mark or the fact that I had to drag myself for the last couple of kms because my left leg had cramped up and almost disowned me. It was easy because it was nothing like the near death experience I’d imagined it would be where I would have to rely on the last drop of positive charge in my protons to make that final lunge before my heart stopped beating. Yes, I know what you are thinking.

Everyone congratulated me for the BIG achievement but all I could muster was a sheepish grin. It reminded me of the school exam results where I somehow always ended up with better grades than I’d bargained for. Such situations always make you wonder whether people are so proud of you because what you did was awesome or because for you to do something like that was awesome.

Everything said and done, I knew that I could do much better. I had gained valuable knowledge for future races, especially the realisation that even if you don’t run for 22.9 kms you ought to run the last 100 meters because that’s where all the photos are clicked! So the clear target was to complete the next half marathon within 2 hours without having to live with pics of me hobbling to the finish line with a constipated look. Not a tough task … or so I thought!