Sydney Marathon - Race day – Before the race

The Sydney marathon was on 20th Sunday September 2009 and was scheduled to start at 7.15am. I managed to get as much sleep as possible in the nights leading up to it except the night before – I expected this anyway. I woke up at 3.30am to have my brekkie – Had a few wholemeal bread rolls with honey and a banana. I decided to skip all dairy products as instructed in most training programs.
After my brekkie I decided to get back into bed and watch the last lecture by Dr. Randy Pausch - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
I have always been a fan of him and inspired by his ‘Last lecture’ (Hypothetically if you were dying, what would you say in your last lecture? For Randy Pausch, that wasn’t a hypothetical. He was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and the doctors only gave him a few more months to live – He passed away few months later).
In the lead up to the marathon I was trying to remember his line about ‘brick walls’. So I decided to watch it to find that line:
“Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.”

I also came across another quote from him – “Experience is what you get, when you didn’t get what you want”. I knew this was going to be so true, even if I couldn’t get to the finish line in a couple of hours.
We arrived in Milsons Point at about 6 AM - After a drive from Quakers hill (via Cherrybrook) to Strathfield and a train ride to Milsons Point. My ‘support crew’ consisted of a very excited and nervous mum, dad and Shyamala!! I had another banana around 6.30 and was ready for the run after some warm up and stretching..

Head Fakes

I learnt the term 'head fake' from one of the best books I've ever read - The last lecture by Dr.Randy Pausch.
http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/beyond/2008/summer/an-enduring-legacy.shtml

Hypothetically if you were dying, what would you say in your last lecture? For Randy Pausch, that isn't a hypothetical. He was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and the doctors only gave him a few more months to live.
If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend it no matter who you are and what you do.. You may want to check out his video first on youtube -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

In his lecture Dr Randy explains head fakes as 'Indirect learnings'..

"And the other thing about football is we send our kids out to play football or
soccer or swimming or whatever it is, and it's the first example of what I'm
going to call a head fake, or indirect learning. We actually don't want our kids
to learn football. ... we send our kids out to learn much more important things.
Teamwork, sportsmanship, perseverance, et cetera, et cetera."

It's amazing to think how much the 'head fake' theory applies to us.. It is not the most obvious outcome of a certain activity that may benefit and define us, but the indirect learning from an sports or activity that ends up benefitting us a lot more..

This is mainly true with Muay Thai (or any martial arts). Your primary aim maybe to get fitter or to be able to defend yourself, but the number of indirect learnings can range from respect for each other, self-respect, time-management etc and ofcourse value of time - 3 minutes in the ring can be a very long time when you are getting beaten the crap out by someone!