Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2013 Race Review

How long has it been already since the last post? Surprised the blog is still alive. Anyway, had the urge to write down my experience of this year's Singapore marathon. Let's do this.

Well, first of all my fitness has declined so much I may be the same as a weighed back in JC. Long story short, all the time was put in school and studies. It was planned and it was a good call because my grades are still there. Now with the holidays, I decided to refocus on my fitness and running.

This would be my third full marathon, with previous two being SCMS as well. Somehow, I've never participated in Sundown FM and never had the attraction to do it. Maybe next year. Going in, I wasn't expected any PR or timing or whatever. I simply wanted to complete and remind myself of my identity and that I could still complete it. So it was quite annoying when people persistently ask for my timing. I guess this hardly can be blamed, as their expectancies were due to my better performances in the past.

Training wise, I would say it was half-half. I guess this was because I only decided to participate in this year's marathon after my exams, which ended in late-October. Needless to say, I had to buy the bib from sellers. So I only had less than 2 months to really prepare. Before this, I was already kind of returning back to form around the middle of the year, where I decided to run around Singapore and create a photo album by taking pictures of the places in ran. I would say I could go 10k no problem, before I bought my bib. But marathon is no 10k, and I knew that. I've done 2 before, I know how challenging it is. So I tried my best to train properly with the limited amount of time I had. One thing about my training now compared to the past is that I am really cautious about injuries, and I will not push myself like a madman almost every single run like before. Getting injured is definitely something I hate, and thus preventing injuries has become somewhat of a priority. All in all, I only managed to clock 15k for my furthest run. I was not confident at all of even completing, to be honest.

So came race day. I've forgotten how much I slept for my previous marathons, but this time I got in around 4 hours of crappy sleep. So slept at 7.30pm, woke up around 11.30pm. Tried to go back to sleep but couldn't; in the end just stayed up until 2am, when I have to prepare.

So 2am slowly arrived (passed time with POKE). No bread in my house, so had to go down to 7/11 to grab some. After bathing, having breakfast, all that, I set off and walked the 2k from my home to JE interchange. I was honestly quite tired and feared that this may affect my performance significantly. So after the good warm up walk, I got on the MRT and off we went. This year's MRT extended hours started at 2.30am at Joo Koon (going towards Raffles Place).

After some time travelling, I finally reached Orchard MRT. The journey was too way longer than I thought, and I reached with only 20 minutes before flag-off. An irritated Mr Ang was already at baggage deposit waiting for me. I should have known really, with the huge influx of runners that day, the MRT intervals was bound to delay. So met up with WL, deposited my bag, and we hustled to the starting point. Luckily, we made it to the second wave (I think) around 5.15am. Strangely to me, there were no nerves or hype. Maybe it's because I had no expectations for myself. I think deep down I really thought I might drop down eventually, and that finishing was a bonus. Nevertheless, the familiar Orchard Road lights and decor drew near and before I knew it, I had taken my first step of the 42.195km.

As WL just recovered from Dengue and had absolutely no training at all this time, he decided to run with me. That was cool. But it was seriously amusing when he was already in front of me after the first few metres! I was thinking, "Damn, his 'slow' is still too much for me." Either that or I was going reeeally slow. I think it was me. I call it the "Grandfather's clock" pace. Anyways, he slowed down and soon we were off chatting and covering miles.

Now, since we were running that slowly, it was easy to strategize our race. I kept on trying to convince myself of the fact that we were running slow because we were 'experienced veterans'. "The rest, they don't know what they are doing! They will just burn out and hit the wall eventually, you'll see." So the first part of our plan was to breeze through the first 10k and still feel energized and relaxed then.

It was a success, and we made it to 10k without much effort. We were slow, but hey, at least we weren't going to injure ourselves. So next, I told WL that I wanted to reach 15k mark with no signs of cramping. This was simply because I nearly cramped in my 15k training run and if it happened again, I would really have to bail out. So thank heavens we reached 15k mark and I still felt okay. The dynamic warm-up I did helped, I believe. Next task, to reach 21k, the half-way point, still feeling relatively good.

*Thunder and lightning*. Worst case scenario happened. Drops of water began invading runners' senses and before we knew it, it was raining heavily. This happened just before the 21k turning point. Man, I had never ran a marathon under heavy rain before, I this was scary. Seriously, as if the marathon itself wasn't daunting enough. Now add rain to that?! At this point I felt like we were back to the cavemen era, running to seek shelter. WL told me, "After this, we will be able to call ourselves true veterans. We ran the marathon under rainy conditions." It was a joke, but it really inspired me. But it was true, I felt like we would come out of this as tougher human beings.

So basically, everyone knows from 21k to 32k this is where the 'droning' part occurs. This was also the period where the pain comes. This is the point that separates normal races from the marathon distance. From 21k onwards we were changing to a walk-run strategy already. And when I mentioned pain, I think I was principally alluding to a new type of injury that I have never experience before. I don't remember the exact moment it happened, but I felt this irritating sensation on my nipples. At first it was just itchy I remember, but now it was starting to...hurt? So I guess on instinct, I looked down on my singlet and oh my good god, I saw a red streak of what I thought was blood running down the right side of my singlet, from where my right nipple was. My first thought was, "Wow, yea, bleeding nipples. I finally got it". Serious. It wasn't painful at all, to be honest, just that kind of uncomfortable itching bordering on pain. If I had to guess, it was the combination of my singlet's size and the rain that resulted in this awkward injury. And soon after, the same happened to my left nipple.

So after all the nipple talk, we finally walk-jogged to 29k mark. By now all kinds of common pain has been experienced - bloody nipples, neck strain, leg ache, fatigue, etc. Surprisingly, my back was holding up well. I was also not experiencing any mental block. I think again, it comes down to my expectations, or lack of. At this point we were rewarded with a banana station and I just munched down 3 bananas just because I can. Definitely not advisable if I was going for PR, but it really doesn't matter here. Oh and I must mention, the timings we consumed our gels was flawless, and because of that I felt constantly energised throughout. This I must credit Mr Ang.

So the journey continues, and finally we exited ECP. By now WL was slightly breaking down due to old nagging injuries, but surprisingly I felt a strong surge of energy. I think it was Runner's high. How ironic; around this point at 32k mark people are hitting the wall, yet I am experiencing Runner's high. It must be the combination of proper pacing and gel consumption. Must take note of this in the future. Sometime at this part of the race I ran and ran for a good km or so, before slowing down to wait for WL. I felt I could go own, but we promised to complete this together.

But suddenly around 37k mark, I think my body slighly crashed and this overwhelming sense of fatigue just consumed me. At the same time, my oldest injury, my left ITB pain, was threatening to flare up. I had no choice but to walk gingerly from this point on to save my legs. WL was also fighting left and right with his back and ankle pain, so we pushed each other through these last few km.

Nearing 40k, I still felt the same, but I could tell WL had conserved energy and was ready to finish strong. I tried to pick up the pace again, but after a few metres my left ITB just won't cooperate. Nearing the end-point, we could see so many runners who had already completed as they were in their finishing tees walking towards us. It was quite embarrassing really, but well, I since my goal was only to complete, as long as I do that I don't have to care about what others think because they wouldn't understand my predicament anyway. So with only less than 1km to go, WL went ahead for the finish. I was happy to jog slowly and cross the finishing line. Oh and I forgot to mention. I was scrapping for leftover salon pas just before exiting ECP, but unfortunately all of them were squeezed out of their lives. As this happened, I guess this kind Malay dude saw me and offer me some. This are the kinds of gesture I love, and to experience it especially in a marathon just feels good. I saw him again at Gardens by the Bay and gave him a pat on the back and a thanks, hope that boosted him up as well. So back to the last 500m, I caught up with this plump guy and we ran side by side for a while. Slowly, but still I could feel this sense of excitement as we approached the finishing line, it's like the saying, " finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow". I encouraged him as we close down metre by metre, before expanding my last burst of energy and sprinting to a glorious finish.

Time? 8 hours plus. But like I said, competing it again was enough. Walking past the stations, I grabbed my finisher tee and kissed my medal. This was my most important 42.195km yet.