Sundown Marathon 2012 Race Report - It's a 32KM warmup run for a 10KM race

I had no specific plan of attack for the build-up at the time of signing up. All signs pointed to my regular DIY training program which includes few good weeks of running, few bad weeks (to undo all the hard work from the good weeks), a couple of unjustifiable purchases of running gear (to make me go faster! – ofcourse), a ridiculously long or short taper. All in all, it was leading towards a race day plan to run 28-32km and switch the survival mode for the last 10KMs. I didn’t know what I could do differently..

ENTER “Operation Nighthawk” by Team FatBird. Some googling had got me to the Team FatBird and their link to the Sundown marathon training program – “Operation Nighthawk”. I registered and joined their weekend long runs. The group 3 (the 5hr marathon group) had runners of similar ability and fitness level ,which certainly made the Friday night and Sunday morning 30+km long runs much more enjoyable and bearable.

Race Day

After what seemed like a long wait, the gun finally went off at 12.30AM. I was with the sub 5hr pacers and we started in the second wave. I’ve never really cared about gun time and was going to base my race on my net/bib time. I was happy to avoid the initial rush and let all the sprinters go past in the first few KMs. I had the pacers in sight about 200-300 meters ahead of me and made the decision to not catch up with them yet.  After keeping them in sight for about 8KMs they continued to increase their lead on me and I eventually lost them. I thought I was running a steady sub 5hr equivalent pace. So I was surprised and saddened to see my sub-5hr dream vanish away so quickly... By then I knew how this story was going to unfold – A continuous battle to run upto about 32-35kms followed by long walks, hating yourself for repeatedly registering for marathons, promising yourself to train harder before you sign up for the next one, thinking of alternate passions and hobbies and then to forget it all for a few minutes and sprint to the finish line holding the world’s best running posture and enjoy another marathon finish despite the slow time. I’ve mastered this in the Singapore marathon 2011 and was already thinking of my list of excuses by the 12^th KM.. The sundown race organizers had done a tremendous job with the logistics, water stations, KM markers and the very enjoyable route for us to light up the city of Singapore at night – So all of that was ruled out from the usual excuse list! However, Singapore weather didn’t let me down.. a balmy 28 degree with 85% humidity at that time of the night seemed like a valid excuse for another slow race.

I decided to forego my sub 5hr goal and run my own race with the much wishful plan of “catching up with the pacers (and going under 5hrs) in the latter part of the race” – Ahh! This is runners’ answer to the pyramid scheme!! You agree to not see any results in the short term and expect to get all you wanted and more by running faster towards the end of the race! I’ve never even thought that’s possible in a marathon! This is always a trick I usually use to fool myself temporarily so I don’t run too fast too soon and to save enough energy to run as long as possible before the painful home stretch.

Few minutes before entering East Coast park, I saw the 35KM marker on the opposite side of the road for the return trip. I promised myself that I’d run until that before my first stop. That itself was going to be a battle in itself considering I was soaked in sweat already even before the half marathon point. I wasn’t even how that was possible but it certainly got even warmer and more humid! There was no breeze either.. It certainly seemed like it was going to be a very long night and if I ran all the way to the 35KM marker, I was going to be very satisfied and thought the last 7 Kms will be my victory walk/run!

I’ve been in Singapore for a year now.. I’ve had to adapt in many ways to suit the Singaporean lifestyle. Most changes, I love: About 15% max tax-rate (hell yes!)!!  $10 cab ride from town or to work! Quick 1-2 hr flight to some of the many exotic locations in Asia! 1% crime rate! And the list goes on..

Some, you struggle to adapt to - Durian (One day I will try it… no hurry though!)

And then there are others that you were never given an option but to accept – One of them was reclassifying what “perfect running weather” is.

In Sydney, a 18-20 degree sunny day is my perfect running weather – It’s nice, cool and the sun is out to keep you warm. You’ve done about 5 KMs before you break a sweat and you never bother carrying any water when you head out on a 10KM run. Singapore’s “perfect running weather” made an appearance about 2 hours after the marathon started. It was a nice cool breeze with a light drizzle and the temperature dropped a few degrees. That was the best any runner could ask for!

I crossed the half-way point (21.1kms) in 2hr25mins. In the past, I’ve faded quite badly in the second half of the marathon. Even in Sydney Marathon 2010 (My 4:34 PB), I was about 15 minutes slower in the second half. So I decided to be sensible and wanted to get to the finish line in less than 5hr 10mins. The 5 hour pacers were long gone and setting 5:10 as the goal with a 5 minute buffer will get me to the finish by 5:15 – Perfect logic! :)

..and so the return trip began..

About half an hour after “perfect running weather”, in true Singapore fashion, the weather decided to change again! – The cool breezes turned into very strong winds and the light drizzle was now a heavy downpour with thunder and lightning. Few minutes later I was running in water logged shoes and stepping on big puddles of water! I found out later that it was a Category 1 storm.

The quickest way to end all this was to get to the finish line, so I kept plodding along. Strangely, I was feeling very good even after 25Kms of running. About a KM later, I decided I was going to pick up my pace. It was a big gamble but I was ready for my mind to take over proceedings from my body for the rest of the race!

It is always a great feeling to be running strong and feeling good in the second half of the marathon. I was running and passing runners as if it was the first KM of the marathon! I knew this feeling may not last and things could turn ugly within few 100 meters but I was enjoying it too much to stop. The faster I ran, the more runners I was passing. I'd later find out that I passed about 175 runners in the last 10KMs and only 15 passed me. My goal of 35KM was in sight and I was still feeling good.

It was time to distract my body with a new game – chasing moving targets! The rule of the game is simple.. Pick the next street light, next turn, next KM marker, the water station or whatever you can see in the next 500-600meterss and plan to run that far.. When you are almost there, forget about that target and aim for the next one. Point of this game is to ‘eat the elephant, one chunk at a time’ and it worked well with distracting me from the throbbing legs and upper body pains!

By 40KMs my mind and body had enough of games and tricks.. Each step hurt much more than the previous one. I could’ve walked for a minute or two and still got to the finish line in well under 5 hours.. but I knew I would regret it forever if I stopped running, that close to the finish line. Couldn’t stop thinking of a quote I saw few days before and that kept me going :

I was determined to keep running despite my body running on an empty tank and every bit of it hurting. Running past 41KM market was a huge relief and excitement. There was no stopping now. I decided to pick up the pace and pass as many runners as possible and finally got to the finish line in 4hr:51mins!!

I had ran all the way in marathon for the first time ever! I’d run an almost even split and the last KM was my fastest KM of the whole race! I wasn't even close to breaking a PB (17 mins off) but this will be one I'll be proud of for a very long time to come...

How to Sync all your Calendars - Part 2 - Facebook & Tripit calendars

In my last post, I explained details of the following:

·         Set up a common calendar

·         Linked it to my Android phone

·         Linked it to Shyamala’s phone (iPhone)

·         Have a common calendar on our PC at home 

 In order to have a complete all-in-one calendar linked to our phones and the PC at home, I had to include events from facebook and travel itineraries from tripit.

Automatically include our travel itineraries including flights and hotel bookings

Tripit is a really handy website to organise travel plans into an itinerary. This is especially useful if you are a DIY traveller like me who organises and purchases your own flight/hotel/tour bookings from various sites. Once you receive the confirmation and receipts from a travel site, you simply need to email that to plans@tripit.com and Tripit is smart enough to pick up all the information from the email and build your itinerary.

Tripit has its own iPhone/Android app. However, I was determined to add these schedules to my calendar. Tripit has the details for this on this link - http://www.tripit.com/uhp/calendarInfo

• Get your iCal feed .
• Copy the URL.
• Open a new browser window and go to Google Calendar. Click on the dropdown button (or the "Add" link in the old Google Calendar version) in the "Other Calendars" section on the left-hand side.
• Choose "Add by URL".

• On the pop-up, paste the URL in the selected text field.
• Click "Add Calendar" to finish.

Once setup, the travel itineraries show up on Google Calendar:

Automatically include Facebook events

Last step was to make sure my facebook events are included in the calendar.

• ·         Go to Facebook events
• ·         Click on drop down menu next to the “Create event” button and select “Export Events..” 

 

• ·         Copy the URL

• Go to Google Calendar and add the above link following the similar steps to the above tripit-Google calendar addition. Once done, your facebook events show up on your calendar:

Once done, your facebook events will be displayed on your Google calendar (and your mobiles via Google Calendar)

Google is smart enough to colour code various calendar - In my case, Facebook events are highlighted in Orange and Tripit in Green.
I am still not happy with all facebook events including declined facebook events showing up. I'm in the process of checking how this can be fixed.
 Unfortunately, the facebook and Tripit events dont flow through to the Windows Live Calendar widget on my desktop (explained in my previous post). The reason for this is the Google iCal output does not share the events from external calendars. In order to fix this, the iCal URLs need to be added directly to the Windows Live Calendar widget as per my previous post. Any suggestions to improve these techniques will be great! Enjoy! :-)

How to Sync all your Calendars - Part 1 - Google, iPhone, Android and Desktop calendars

Lately, I have been on a mission to set up a common calendar for Shyamala and I to share and to integrate our personal calendars, Facebook calendars and travel itineraries so it’s all in one common calendar . With some research and Googling, I’ve managed to do the following:

·         One common calendar

·         Link it to my Android phone

·         Link it to Shyamala’s iPhone (clearly I have a better phone than Shyamala :) )

·         Have a common calendar on our PC at home

·         Automatically include our travel itineraries including flights and hotel bookings

·         Automatically include Facebook events

Not sure if this means I’ll manage my time better, but it certainly does help with it and with planning our schedule. Now for the details:

One common calendar

I needed a fairly straight forward calendar with good integration with phones and other apps. The choice was fairly obviously. I signed up for a Google Calendar account. This was a fairly straight forward process.

Syncing with the Android Phone

Android users are in luck. The setting up of a Google account/calendar is quite straight forward. If your Google calendar account is the same as the gmail account you used when you set up your phone, all of your calendars will automatically sync with the phone. In my case, the gmail account I use on my phone is different to the common calendar I set up recently.  So I had to add the new calendar.

To make life easier, I’ve also added two of the below HTC calendar widgets: 

Syncing with the iPhone

Unfortunately, this is a little more complicated than Android! (Another reason to use Android :) )

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, click Add Account and create a new Microsoft Exchange Account -- not the Gmail option (yes!!! Weird!). Leaving the 'Domain' field blank, enter your Google account details in 'Username' and 'Password,' tap 'Next,' and add m.google.com as the 'Server' field on the following screen. Next, you'll be prompted for the services you'd like to sync. If this is your first time setting up mail, contacts or your calendar, go ahead and select all three.

If you are using multiple calendars open Safari to choose which Google Calendars you require. Use your account details to log in to m.google.com/sync on your phone, and select the device you're using. Tap the button next to each calendar you want on your phone, and press 'Save' once you're satisfied. Wait a few seconds, boot up the iOS Calendar app, and your Google calendars, now fully editable, will download from the Web.

If you are assuming multiple iPhones or iPads, you just need to follow the above steps on all of it. You can customize your sync settings on each device.

Have a common calendar on our PC at home

I wanted the calendar to be setup on our laptop at home. Ideally, I was looking for a desktop ‘widget’ that will load at startup on my Windows7 laptop and display the calendar... that is exactly what I found here (Not sure what Microsoft was thinking when they removed Windows Calendar from Windows7!!)

This Windows Live Calendar Gadget allows syncing from Windows Live, Google Calendar or any other calendar (including Facebook and tripit – more details below). It also allows you to sync more than one calendar! – Just what I needed.

1. Go to Google calendar > settings > Calendar tab and select the Calendar you wish to sync:

2. Under ‘Private address’, click ICAL and copy the URL:

3. Go to the Windows Live Calendar Gadget > options and paste the URL.

You can choose various the sync interval, reminder options and pick one of the three skins currently available:

Once it is setup, it sits really nicely on the desktop:

I hope this helps someone..
I've also linked my facebook events and travel itineraries (via tripit) to the above calendar (and the phones). I'll explain how I did that in the next blog.