After I got comfortable with my Mark II (my post about my leg is HERE), I feel that I wanted to try new things. Things that I thought I was unable to do after my leg was gone.
One particular thing was running. Initially with the Mark I, I had tried to run but it was too difficult for a few reasons:
- The leg is kinda heavy
- My stump wasn't as developed
- It will be very painful due to the impact
- My leg gets undone easily
With my new leg, I feel that I can run because it is significantly lighter and it is more secure. So, I had a few practice around my housing area and felt it was OK. Mind you I still cannot run for long because it will still be very painful. However, it was waaayyy better than before.
To take it up a notch, me, my back-then-wife-to-be and a good friend of mine, Elin, decided that we should try to run in a proper marathon. So, we registered ourselves for the Brooks Marathon and I bravely signed up for the 10km run!
The day came, 11th March 2012, time to run........and I ran!
The marathon started in Bukit Jalil at 6:00am and finished in Bukit Jalil. I was very nervous but what the heck. I was already there.
Elin ran ahead of us and my back-then-wife-to-be accompanied me all the way. I had to run slow because it was still painful and from time to time, stop at the side of the road, take off my leg and stump socks and put em back on again. I was feeling rather down but because she was there to support me, I never gave up.
When we arrived at the Bukit Jalil stadium, there was a junction where the 5km runner will proceed to the stadium to finish the marathon and the 10km will have to do another route to complete the distance. I was contemplating whether or not to continue because I knew I was behind due to the stoppages.
Then I saw a couple of people wearing the 10km tag in front of me and thought "wait a minute.... I'm not the last, there is still hope!!!". So I told my back-then-wife-to-be to continue running.
Along the way there was a feeling of regret in me saying "why didn't I took the left turn together with the 5km people"... but when we were joined by the 21km runner and some of them pat me at the back saying stuff like "way to go bro!" and "good job man" and "salute laaaa"....it fueled me to continue running.
About 1km from the Stadium, I saw a group of 10km runner walking (due to exhaustion) and I overtook them. There was a feeling of achievement in me and then I saw a few other 10km runner so I tried to catch them.....and I did! Long before I knew it, we were at the stadium finishing our final mile.
As I was running towards the finish line, I heard cheers from the runner who had finished but saw me earlier. I felt like Usain Bolt running towards the line! It felt good. I did it! I FINISHED A 10KM RUN, FIRST TIME, WITH NORMAL LEG INSTEAD OF A PROPER RUNNING LEG!
Officially a 10km finisher!
My mom came to give her support
The three of us
Guess what? Eventhough I passed a couple of people, a week after that when the official results came out, I found out that there were 21 more runners behind me. TWENTY ONE!!!! I wasn't the last eventhough I had never run for the past seven years as an amputee and I didn't have running leg like Oscar Pistorius!
I am king!
and now I know exactly how Forrest Gump felt when he ran for the first time! Run Forrest Run!
* DISABILITY IS JUST A WORD!!!*
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