2012 Training Day 106: 21K in 1:53

We were at the start point in time. It had rained the previous day. And by 6:05, we were off.
Within the first Km, GK remained behind and I was quickly losing sight of him. I knew something was wrong but I needed to push.
I started well with the first 1Km in 5:02 an improvement of 14 seconds from last month. My shoe laces were off in the third Km. I had to stop and tie them.
The rest of the Kms were fine and I recorded gains and losses even though GK was not there to push or pull me.
By the 11th Km, I had improved my last months time by 48 seconds. Then I developed stomach cramps on my right side. I wished it was a stitch but I was wrong. The pain was unbearable. I had to stop completely and double up and from there, the race was basically over for me. The pain was too much. Even if I applied pressure with my hands to reduce the pain, it was still painful. Try as I did, it was there.
From the 13th to 15th Km, there was a lot of mud which also slowed me down further. I jogged home to finish in 1:53.
Like one of my friends says, There is no failure, there is only the next race. The next race we will be chasing a sub 1:40 on 24th June in Eastlands, to be hosted by Mark. GK was feeling sluggish and could not push himself today.
I learnt a few things from this race:
Showing up for a race is more important than how the race turns out.
The mental toughness of putting oneself in a race is also more important than the actual performance.
You don't have to run on the pavement if its muddy or too rough or banking. Running on the tarmac is fine for a race.
Every race is training and has benefits of improving performance.
Each race teaches you something about yourself: how to taper, how to push, how your body reacts to training etc.
Like today I learnt what can cause stomach cramps and how bad stomach cramps are.
Keep active guys.