Sundown Marathon 2011 Day 2/2

I lost Alin at around the lagoon area as I stopped at every water station while she skipped a few. Could not help it as I tend to drink a lot.

I was actually feeling quite relaxed at this pace. Or rather, there was no stress to run fast to hit a good timing.

As we made our way to the U-turn point, I could actually see some familiar faces on the opposite side running back to CEC. Woohoo .. !! .. JIA YOU .. !! .. :)

The U-turn was near Fort Road. I realised my pace was slowing down. Should I put in effort to keep pace? Nope .. forget it .. I would just go at whatever pace my body was going .. feeling free .. :)

The landmarks gradually passed by me one by one. Big Splash, Mac, Lagoon, Bedok Jetty, NSC, NSRCC .. and finally coastal road ..

You do not try to count the lamp posts along coastal road .. you do not look towards the airport and attempt how far you have run .. you just look ahead and run .. :)

The right turn into CEC came .. finally .. and now we were left with 3km more to go. Yeah!

Having ran the same road during the 10km made it somewhat easier, although still straining.

As I turned in towards the finish line, I picked up my pace and stretched out both my hands into an aeroplane pose and I ran passed the finish line.

I did it!



Gun Time: 05:53:17
Net Time: 05:42:35

Overall Placing: 2094 / 7628
Gender Placing: 1841 / 6416
Division Placing (M30-34): 310 / 910




Medals for the 10km and 42km. It was a tiring night. But satisfying .. :)



I had booked the transport at 0600Hr. The time now was around 0500Hr. Still have another 1 hour to spare. I wished 0600Hr would come faster. I was very tired and just wish to go home and sleep.


What you do when you are very bored.

I closed my eyes and dozed off several times. Finally the time was 0545Hr. I slowly made my way to the boarding area. The 0600Hr buses were already lined up and there were already people in them.


Luckily there was not much people in my bus.



The bus left at around 0610Hr. As it moved towards coastal road, I saw there were still runners slowly making their way back to CEC. I understand it must be very tough and tiring for them to be still running at such a time. The bus turned left when it hit coastal road, so it means we were travelling towards ECP and we could clearly see the runners still struggling along coastal road. Almost all of them were walking. Some in a group. Some alone. The volunteers at the water station were still eagerly handing out cups of water to the runners and encouraging them.

"Comon! Comon! Just that bit more!" I wished I could call out to them.

The further we travel down coastal road, the scene looks less and less encouraging. The runners got more and more dispersed. There was even a runner just laying on the ground. Most probably feeling tired from the overnight run. Until we saw a runner walking slowly with a volunteer on a bike beside him. Ok, I guessed he should be the last guy.

I fell asleep as the bus moved on. Too exhausted from the run.

Sundown Marathon 2011 Day 1/2

The gear for tonight.

Met Alin at City Hall at 1530Hr to go to Expo together. The boarding point for the shuttle service was at Expo MRT. We reached Expo at around 1600Hr. The place was already crowded.












The bus departed Expo at around 1610Hr. As we were early, the queue was still moving quite smoothly.


The traffic was clear all the way to Changi Exhibition Center (CEC). We reached at around 1635Hr.






Some of the tents of the main sponsors.


The apparel sponsor, New Balance.




This year, they had changing tents for the participants.


Some of those who arrive early were sitting at the seaside while waiting for the start time.



The starting pen opened to the 10km participants at 1730Hr, 30mins before start time.





The airhorn went off at 1800Hr. The few rows of runners in front of me were all very fast runners. As I was still picking up my pace, they had already sped off, leaving a trail of smoke.



Passing the first km of the run, I knew something was wrong with me. I could not maintain the fast pace. It just dawned onto me again that these few months of running LSD wiped out all speed in me. I was breathing hard. I knew I had to slow down. I did. At the first water station along coastal road, I walked for a short distance before resuming my run again.

More and more runners overtook me. I am alright with it. We were running for different things. They were focusing on speed. I had already set my training to focus on endurance since the start of my UM training. I knew I had made a mistake of starting of at such a fast pace.

Now, focus!. Finish the run!

Soon came the U turn. As I headed back to CEC, I passed by the middle pack of the runners on the other side. It was really crowded.

As we turned right towards CEC, there was another 3km to go. Endure! Finish it!.

It was tough.

I barely survived the 10km run.



Gun Time: 00:53:20
Net Time: 00:53:16

Overall Placing: 76 / 5981
Gender Placing: 60 / 2618
Division Placing (M30-34): 12 / 592


Karen Loh.


Soon Teck and Joanne.


Mohan.


Reuben and David.


With Khai Leng and her running twin, Yvonne.


Soon Teck, Daniel, Stella, Joanne.


Steven.


Winston, Le Giang, Steven.


Le Giang.


Daniel.


Cherie.


The New Balance staff.

I took the waiting time to rest and ate a Subway sandwich I had bought before meeting Alin. I also ate a packet of dried cranberries. The 42km run later will be a slow and relaxing run. I also went for a shower and changed into a new set of running attire.


Alin was also the 5:30 pacer for the 42km run.

My strategy was to follow the 5:30 group for as long as I can until I break away from them. Sounds good. I knew I was in no condition to attempt for a 4:30 timing.


This was for Fia, who was also a 5:30 pacer but could not be here as she had injured herself a month ago. Besides this, other friends of Fia also did similar "For Fia" signs and pinned on their back.




The race was delayed for a short while. But as soon as the airhorn blasted into the sky, all the runners eagerly ran past the start line through the photographers and videographers, jumping and waving to the cameras.

I sticked closely to the 5:30 pacer group. There was people all around me. 2 pacers lead the way while Alin and Winston stayed at the back.

The pace was ok. As we were running, the 21km-ers were also running back. Soon we reached coastal road. I tried to run by myself to get used to running alone but still sticking close to the 5:30 pacers. Every now and then, there would be runners coming up from the back. Once they saw the 5:30 tag on the back of the pacers, they would ask their friends to speed up and overtake them. These are the people who wanted to do a better timing.

Soon we were at ECP. The smell of the BBQ stuff was very enticing. At F1, there were even a group of Caucasians cheering the runners on.

It was a very familiar route. I have ran it countless times. The 42km today was meant as a milage clocking run. So as I trotted along, I was trying to imagine myself running there all by myself during the UM a month later.

One month later.

Although I had done it once in TUC in March, but I was still unsure of the SDUM. This kind of races, it does not meant that if you have done it once so you can do it again.

As I was thinking of the UM in my mind, we came to the food center.

The time was now midnight.

Sundown Marathon 2011 Race Expo

Today was the start of the RunBikeSwim Expo, also the race pack collection of Sundown Marathon 2011 at Singapore Expo.








The 42km route.








The lounge for the ultramarathoners. We just had to sit down and pass the confirmation slip to the volunteers around they would help us to do the collection.


There were snacks for us.


Free flow of ice cold 100Plus.


The 100km route.


Opening up the running vest.


Trying out the running vest.


The special needs bag.


Also helped Fumi to do the race kit collection.


With Alin, who was there as a volunteer.


With SK and Ah Chua.


With Yang Hong and Khai Leng.


With Nancy.


BIBs for the 10km, 42km and 100km.


There would be more friends joining me this time to conquer the 100km!