Singapore Marathon 6th Dec 2009

You know running is a funny thing. The ramblings of the mind while you are engaged this activity is varied, from true and utter blankness to zen-like pre-occupation of your breathing to what you had for last night's dinner. I have been faithfully running for many years but this year really ramped it up and have competed and completed at the SAFRA marathon , north face and of course the running that comes with triathlons. I would not say i am an elite runner and certainly not one of the Tumerahara runners but within the Singapore running community i have consistently finished within the top 20th centile. After the October sojourn into the bukit timah hill and its neighbouring forests running the race that many would consider teh toughest race in singapore, i thought i will be for the marathon..

The month of november was really not a productive month in terms of training. I had to travel 3 weeks and was only back on the last week of November. Whilst away, I had to run whenever I had a chance. As it was largely late autumn in Europe, I bought myself a winter running top which turned out to be fabulous. I did some decent mileage in Nuremberg for the 3 days I was there clocking up 40 km. In Nagoya, i did better doing 50 km. I think running in the cool weather did me a lot of good and gave me great confidence. In fact I was doing 5:20 min/ km which I thought was really decent.

The eve of the race was just preparation and deciding what I was going to carry with me. Remembering PK's advice of nutrition and electrolyte replacement, I had already work out a strategy of a gel every 40 minutes and a salt tablet every 45 minutes. I did a bit of carbo loading at YJ house the night before and even indulged in 1 glass of red wine. I secretly hoped I will not regret it the next day but the temptation was really too great! I was up at #:#) am and had 2 slices of bread with peanut butter and a glass of Soy  Bean milk. I also had a mugful of berroca, Accelerade and to tell the truth I was a bit bloated by all of this.

Getting to Raffles city was quite a breeze. Along the way I saw a chap cycling to the race which I thought was likely only because he was doing the 10 km or he would be a real idiot.

Had to wait a bit for ew and while waiting for him I did a bit of warm up.

The race had 18000 people for the full marathon. I started really conservatively adn did a 6:40 to 7:00 per km for the first 10. Was a 10 km per pee stop which prompted ew to say "for a guy with a big **** you sure have a small bladder!" In the second 10 km we upped our pace and was running at about a 6:30 which was really comfortable. had a chance to chit chat a bit and enjoy the atmosphere.

the 3rd 10 km was still easy for me and I felt strong. Had to put a bit of salonpas on the calves but otherwise I felt really strong. ew was beginning to tire. at 32 km, he was falling behind and by then I had  upped by speed to 6:to 6:10 and by then I had overtaken many guys. In fact i overtook( according to the statistics 894 people in the final 10 km and only 5 passed me). i was tired and had to slow down somewhere near the F1 starting grid area and by then with 3 km i really increased my pace. I finished at 4:35, not back for an old geek like me!