With the preparation and training I’ve had in the lead up to this marathon, I almost felt like I shouldn’t have been there at the start line on the Singapore Marathon 2011 on 4th December, but having crossed the marathon finish line thrice, it was going to take a lot for me to turn down the opportunity to miss this wonderful experience.
Timeline of event leading upto this was:
Jan to Jun 11 – I had the best (half) year of running. I was constantly seeing sub 5min pace on my garmin. I was very much on track for a sub 4:15 Sydney Marathon & eventually to run one sub 4hr marathon in my life!
Jun 11 – Was offered a role in Singapore. Decided to accept it and move to Singapore with Shyamala.
First week of work in Jun – Got a corporate ‘invitation’ to run the Singapore marathon 2011. Shift + Deleted it and assumed I would never receive such junk mails anymore.
July-August – Learned some basics of living in Singapore. I now know:
*It is normal to look like you came from the Sauna after a 5 minute walk to the station
*At some point, you need to start pushing into the busy train if you ever wanted to get home on time.
* The STOP sign and pedestrian crossing are more of an optional sign for the drivers - If you request them to stop and if they can be bothered, they’ll stop
* CAN is the national phrase. It indicates “it can be done”
* Pack of tissues on an empty table in a busy food court means that the table is reserved by someone. Substitutes for pack of tissues are – umbrellas, wallets and hand bags!
Late August – Got a ‘reminder’ for the Singapore Marathon registration. Couldn’t resist it this time – I decided to sign up for it and ‘forget about it’.
August – October – Very stringent carb-loading regiment has already commenced thanks to East coast fresh seafood, Lau pa sat satays and little India curries of Singapore. Every now and then, a few runs were also done, along with (a more frequent and structured) muay thai training.Early November – GAME FACE ON! I have a marathon to run in about 5 weeks. Plan was simple, I continue my muay thai training 2-3 times a week and fit in a long run in the weekends. This worked well for the first two weeks.
Third week, November – This was supposed to be my longest run weekend. Instead I was at Koh Lanta, Thailand with Shyamala. That was the beginning of my tapering. There was no running there at all.. not even to get to the room (we had golf buggies for it) or to walk to the seafood restaurant on the beach (why walk when we have our own scooter!). Only interval training that was done was the naps between the meals, pool, beach, bars and snorkeling :)
4th Dec - “While Singapore is sleeping…”
The race start was at 5am. I got there around 4.40am hoping to get to the “sub 6 hours” starter group. My goal time was 5:15 with a dream time of 5 hours. A sub 6 hour starter group and/or the pacers were nowhere to be seen. I was confident that as the race progresses I would either catch the pacers and they’d catch me. (Lesson learnt – Plan to get to the start atleast an hour earlier. Singapore marathon has about 10 times more runners than Sydney runners – approx. 20000+ runners)
The start and the first few KMs were fairly uneventful with runners everywhere, very active water stations and active bands. The stand out was the enthusiastic families and supporters at that time of the day and the magnificent sights of Singapore’s China town, the esplanade, marina bay sands and Singapore flyer. We continued our run on the F1 race circuit and headed out towards the East Coast Park.
East Coast park is about 1.5 KMs from our house. It’s my training ground and known territory for me. This “popular beach” is a lot different to what most would expect – it takes a few months to get used to the sights of large containers ships few hundred meters off the beach and the lights from some island in Indonesia. I really surprised myself as I ran to the half-way turnaround point and continued running all the way down east coast.
“Respect the Distance”
The trick to run all 42.2kms in a marathon is simple – You need to do your long runs! There really are no short-cuts. Short runs, cross-training, weights training, muay thai, soccer, reading books, watching marathon videos on youtube, talking about running a marathon on facebook, may help you get to about the 28-33km point if you are reasonably prepared but ‘the wall’ will get to you at some point if you’d skipped the long runs. This time, I was one of many who had not done enough long runs in the lead up. By the 30th KM, I’d well and truly hit the wall. The sun was out and the heat was unbearable. There were no KM markers, there were no pacers in and my garmin wasn’t getting good satellite signals!! I had no idea where I was on the course.
With some running and a lot of walking and almost feel like passing out, I finally got to Padang to cross the finish line of my 4th Marathon. As always, Shyamala was there to receive me. Being there for almost an hour longer (thanks to her husband being over-enthusiastic about his goal time) might not have been much fun, but she certainly did not show it as she continued cheering me on as I ran towards the finish line.
I don’t usually don’t bother joining the post-race bandwagon of people complaining about the race. This marathon had a lot of complaints and most of them did not bother me. I wasn’t concerned about not having the right finisher t-shirt size (luckily I had my size this time!) or not getting a printed certificate or the recovery area being muddy! I almost don’t even mind the long gaps between the water stations in the final 10kms or them being really muddy and was a DIY station! But not having KM markers or properly organized pacers on an iconic race like the Singapore marathon is ridiculous. The heat may still have got to me – But I would have definitely tried my best to keep up with a pacer and/or keep a steady pace as I ran past KM markers to achieve a faster time.
It was interesting to note that my PB at Sydney marathon 2010 (4:34) still had me at the back of the pack with only 18% behind me.This marathon had a whopping 59% runners still behind me - despite the slower time of 5:54. I wonder how much of that relates to the sweltering Singapore heat.
That was my 4th marathon done ! :) I’ve now done at least one marathon a year, since my first marathon in 2009.
A sub 4:15 (and eventually a sub 4hr marathon) is still on my bucket list.. but as my priority have temporarily changed, I don’t planning on waiting for the “perfect buildup” before lining up for the next marathon or half marathon. I hope to continue racing for fun. If work, studies, Singapore and the sights and beaches of Asia don’t get in the way at some point, I hope to train harder to achieve a much faster time :-)
