Hello dear Asia Exchange readers,
As we all knew he would, our friend Colin managed to finish his run! (a round of applause please!). Without further ado, I will leave the stage for his thoughts on the event. Ta-ta!
– Rudi
What a day! One of the best (and most painful) ones of my life.
Some 4000 full marathon runners gathered at Laguna at 4.30am in the morning. I was very nervous as I had never run 42km before and there was a lot of pressure, as I only promised to collect the sponsorship money when I finished the race (only exception was the people from Asia Exchange, who were donating money of each kilometer I managed to finish).
At 4.30am we were off: there was no going back now. It was still dark and a little cool, so the running conditions were ideal. That was until the sun came up at 6.30am and the hard work really started. At this stage we were just short of the 20km mark (nobody told me about the hills!).
From 7am onwards, I just focused on the finishing line and all the money that I was raising for the charity. That kept me going throughout the race along with dance music on my iPhone.
I saw many people fainting in front of me due to the relentless hot weather, but I made the decision to take is slow and steady.
The last 10km felt like 100km. My feet were aching, I could feel the blisters and the pain in my legs and my hips were really starting to hurt. But I kept on going.
I finally crossed the finishing line at 9.45. At this point, I had been running for 5 hours and 45 minutes. I didn’t even get a chance to catch my breath before I was interviewed by the Phuket News: they had heard about my sponsorship, the amount raised and the charity I was running for, so they were keen to find out more! Some of my students and people from the charity had also come out to support and cheer me on, which was a great help.
It felt fantastic to cross the finishing line knowing that I had raised a lot of money. But I couldn’t have achieved this without the kindness of people like Asia Exchange, who kindly donated almost 18,000 THB in total. I am so grateful. I also received sponsorship and lots of messages from past ISPP students, which meant the world to me.
I was very tired and excited at the same time, but I knew I had to sleep. Looking after yourself after a marathon is just as important as preparation prior to a marathon. I went home and slept for 6 hours.
I am so happy that I could be part of this great event and raise money for such a great cause, helping kids with HIV. My pain from running the marathon will disappear within a day or two but their pain will last a lifetime. I am pleased I could help, but as I said before, I couldn’t have done this without the kind generosity from people who share the will for helping others. Thank you everyone!
– Colin
