Sundown Marathon postscript

Some pictures taken by my non-running buddy who was in Singapore with me and saw me off at the starting line... (notice all the pictures are DARK). Obviously I miss our friendly malaysian race photographers, and the pacesetters photo on cert thing...

Pic 1- Odyssey premium service bus - going was a long journey due to friday traffic, but coming back was ok.

Pic 2 - Collected the race pack (ok, the pack had nothing much except one t-shirt, a customised number tag, and a bottle of mineral water and hundred plus). Carbo loading at Mandarin having my favorite chicken rice at Chatterbox (using carbo loading as an excuse, heheh)


Pic 3 - My sundown customised tag - they gave you a means of name you want printed on the tag and a new chip system - it was just a RFID string with a transmitter wired to the back of the tag.

Pic 4 - Sundown comes, midnight arises, getting ready for the race

Pic 5 - Warming up for the race - why does nobody warm up? I was a bit surprised that there were tons of participants (4000 I was told!) and yet, everyone was SITTING around. I had a bad feeling this was one of the marathon techniques I was not aware off... (or is it a singapore thing?)

Pic 6 - See, sitting around even for those at the first of the line. They must understand the pain and conserving energy...

Pic 7 - Go-go-go

My first marathon was an away trip - to Singapore, which revealed a whole new world of running to me and the 42km finisher tag - priceless..!

The race started in humid 12midnight the ungodly hour when everyone is getting ready to sleep. I was fortunate to have booked the hotel next to the race starting point at the last minute over the internet. It was a simple 5 mins walking distance away.

I had no strategy, but I carbo loaded dinner, breakfast, lunch and dinner before the race, drank lots of water to hydrate my body, slept the afternoon to rest, and brought along 4 packs of powerbar gels.

At the starting line, my first surprise was that, there were A LOT of people! Wow, Singapore is a really fit city (I will find out more later!). There was no way I could look for my colleagues (4 of them were running) or others I knew who were running this race. I did find KJ at the starting line and we started together, at the 5hr marker.

The starting was really cool, but eventually we were chaperoned off to a side of the road walkway even at the start, this became a congestion traffic point (CONGESTION at a MARATHON?). It also made me dizzy when I see so many runners stomping all around me...

0-10km - This was all the way around some flat pancake road, along changi, all the way somewhere to the civil airbase. The airport road was really really long (nothing like RMAF) - planes booming along the runway (and the passengers probably looking out and seeing these ants at midnight+... (we were wearing the shiny glowing concert band thing!)

11-20km - The east coast park was a bit more windy, and a nicer place to run. Although at some point there were people having picnics and all on the side, it was a strange distraction. At 20km there was a turnback, so along here I saw the other two of my colleagues - KH and SA, on the other side. I was still running ok.

21-30km - The unknown territory begins at this point as I had not run beyond 21km in my poor preparation. I was still going quite well, and at 21km, I was around my usual 21km run pace, but body still feeling good and legs feeling ok, at this point I knew I could make it to the finish. It was all a countdown from here. This part was the most weird route of the race, it went through a few overhead bridges, many park connectors (ie running next to people's house in lanes), and some weird smaller pathways. I lost a bit of momentum here, as there were many people walking, some of them even block the path.

31-42km - The countdown, and also halfway, last hour, it started to rain. It was a real motivation for me to run faster. At this point, I was surprised my feet were just numb, but no cramps, aches or anything and really jogging was much more comfortable than walking. The finishing last 2km, I almost walked it, except for last 1km, when you know you will finish, you kind of slack off... but... what a feeling - the finish arch was ... euphoric, I ran like 100m speed the last 50m!

Some comments :

1) Singapore vs. Malaysia - a couple of things - Malaysians will never sign up with such fervor for a marathon. But, as I expected, there were still many Singaporeans who were not really experienced athletes (ie they were walking much of the race beyond 10km or same pace as me). I was wondering where singaporeans run and train since there was not much space. I realised during the run there were these connectors pathways between apartments... The other thing I wondered was about warming up and this sitting down thing - most sat around the starting line - is this a new technique?

2) Route - What the heck are bridges doing in a run? I think I did about 4 bridges, I cannot remember. One even had stairs... and the final little bridge one lane to the finishing area ... But kudos to some lone person cheering you in the middle of the night in weird nooks and corners, at least won't get lost, and also they had toilets along the way.

3) Carbo loading, hydration, gels, socks - I cannot underestimate the value of these three factors. Beyond 21km, I felt good enough to go for another 21km, due to these three factors, and the socks and shoes are important to avoid blister and have a good run

4) Chaffing, Pain and Post Race - The only comment I had post race was - I now know what is the reason why you need vaseline to avoid chaffing (during shower after run). The other was that extended pain can be avoided with good anti-inflammation cream, warm up and I am an advocate of powerbar recovery drink.

I am not sure when I will run a marathon again, but you can be sure I will be better prepared... ! For the record, I ran for more hours than I usually sleep - this is an achievement! Thanks to all for the motivation.