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Thinking About Time vs. Distance

Last Sunday, I finished my 4th half-marathon - the Yamaha Run for Heroes at the BGC. I joined to see if it is a good idea to use a race for a long run. I didn't target a PR; I targeted a typical 21K long run, which is around 3.5 hours for me.

After crossing the finish line - exhausted, cramps and sore feet, I still got to think of The Marathon. And I thought I can't possibly run another 21 kilometers. But somehow, I also thought that running another 3 to 4 hours might still be doable. Weird? Yes, but that's how I felt at the time.

Up until yesterday, I was wondering if there was a rationale for this. And looking back at what I think about during these races, I came up with a couple.

First are the concepts - how time flies when you are trying to meet a deadline (my target finish time); and when travelling, it seems like it's taking forever to reach your destination (finish line) - "Are we there yet?" Even if my target time in a race may be sub-3 hours, minutes still pass by quickly. I remember thinking - "What?! It's already been 2 hours! I only have an hour to go!" And I didn't even have to draw on my patience for those 3 hours.

Second is, time will pass whatever I do, so I just need to keep on moving forward. On the other hand, for distance, I have to work to cover the distance.

I guess psychologically for me, in these situations, it would be easier to think in terms of time rather than distance. I'm not a long distance runner. Instead, I'm a long time runner.

So the next time I'm struggling in a long distance race, all I need to think of is - "It's just another 3 hours, it'll be over soon."

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