2012 Sundown Marathon : Deed done, now what?
After 3 months of preparation, starting from that 42km feeler run back in March, the moment came ..... and went. The week leading to this has been a little bit repressive. I had to restrained myself both mentally and physically in order not to do too much activity and this was rather unpleasant. Very weird. It was in the end, more of a good thing than bad as I entered race day with the least pain and aches I've ever had going into any activity for the past 3 months. That was not to say that I was going to do extremely well but its at least a bit more comforting to know that I will probably endure much less over the mammoth distance.
So I had my stuff all packed prior. I had a lot of time thinking about what to wear for the event and settled on the provided singlet, my sexy FBT plenty short shorts and Puma H-Streets. Strange to think that after spending quite a fair bit on shorts, I settled with the first few shorts which I bought for 10SGD. Same goes for the shoes! I spent on Merrells, Kinvaras, and NB but settled with the first running shoe I bought since my 2nd revival into running and the cheapest one as well!
Mark was kind enough to provide me and Ryo a lift to the event place at Nicoll Highway MRT. Upon reaching there I was very surprised of the carnival-like atmosphere at 12am! Ryo and I deposited our bags and went to the starting line up. I told him very specifically that he will run at this pace and I have no doubt about this. We started with the 4:30 group but he promptly shot off and was no where to be seen after 500m! Now I can just focus on completion and do my best to 1) complete under 5hrs 2) to as close as 4:30 as I possibly can.
0-10km : This was running deep in the city with a huge huge stream of people. You hear nothing except the sound of stomping feet. Its amazing how loud it can be.....mine was silent so it was quite a challenge to keep your own pace in the midst of this atmosphere. I was determined to keep a manageable start pace and see later on if I could speed things up a little. The terrain was a bit up and down and got quite dusty at Marina Bay area. It was nice as we ran passed the Sands and people were cheering for us all around. Ran pass the Marina Barrage and into the Bay Gardens in the East. This is where the 21km and the 42km people take a different route. The 42km runners now face the long and arduous journey up to the Bedok Jetty and beyond before u-turning back the same way.
10-25km : Familiar territory. I've run this route countless of times and it could pass pretty fast for me although not in actual speed! As I reached the 17km point or so the first guy in the 42km ran passed the other way. It was 32km for him. At this point I was thinking to myself just how back I was !! Although I was familiar here it was still tough and I was slowing down rapidly. Cumulative average pace hit 6:30 at 20km and was 6:32 at 25km u-turn point. Had a quick toilet break with the timer still running. I decided to also top up my bottle at the 100plus stations.
25-35km : Suddenly was hit by gusts of cold wind! Soon after it started to rain pretty heavy. Saw a barefoot runner and I increased pace to run with him for a while. It was getting really cold at this point and my HR dropped to the 145 range. I found it difficult to speed up as my legs started to feel a tad heavy. Cardio had a lot of room but not the legs. This route is basically retracing the ECP way back to the Bay Gardens in the East. I was amazed of the stream of people still 'on their way' on the other side of the path, even at the 33km point. Marathon walkers I guess.....
35km-40km : New territory going pass the Bay Gardens and into Tanjung Rhu. People were dropping like flies over here and I passed quite a lot of them. However, still quite a few 21km people labouring on the route at this point in time. Some of the guys who passed me earlier were walking at this point. I did my best to keep my pace and not slow down further. Mentally, I was calculating the possibility of completing within 5hrs and at this point I knew I could do much better.
40km-42km : As I reached Nicoll Highway, my strides shortened and I quickened my steps to sub 6:30 pace. It was at this point that I regretted not doing so 3-4km back ad I realized that I did have the capacity to maintain this speed for the final 5km with no issues. The rain was getting heavier again. Passed the finishing line plenty relieved.
42.195km in 4hr 44mins 04secs....yet again my GPS watch registered a shorter distance of 41.7km! Based on the time and the race distance of 42.195km, the average pace over the elapsed time is 6:44 min/km. I am just picky because this was such a tough tough run!
This ranks in terms of effort and suffering in between the Genting Climb of 2010 and 150km Stage 1 of tour De Bintan of 2011. Always feels good to punch through the top 3.
So what's next? well, I've Ipoh century ride in July and a holiday period in June with the family so lets keep it at that first. I should expect a few personal cycling trips but nothing firm yet. As for running, I'm really looking into TNF at this moment but not firm.
Mark was kind enough to provide me and Ryo a lift to the event place at Nicoll Highway MRT. Upon reaching there I was very surprised of the carnival-like atmosphere at 12am! Ryo and I deposited our bags and went to the starting line up. I told him very specifically that he will run at this pace and I have no doubt about this. We started with the 4:30 group but he promptly shot off and was no where to be seen after 500m! Now I can just focus on completion and do my best to 1) complete under 5hrs 2) to as close as 4:30 as I possibly can.
0-10km : This was running deep in the city with a huge huge stream of people. You hear nothing except the sound of stomping feet. Its amazing how loud it can be.....mine was silent so it was quite a challenge to keep your own pace in the midst of this atmosphere. I was determined to keep a manageable start pace and see later on if I could speed things up a little. The terrain was a bit up and down and got quite dusty at Marina Bay area. It was nice as we ran passed the Sands and people were cheering for us all around. Ran pass the Marina Barrage and into the Bay Gardens in the East. This is where the 21km and the 42km people take a different route. The 42km runners now face the long and arduous journey up to the Bedok Jetty and beyond before u-turning back the same way.
10-25km : Familiar territory. I've run this route countless of times and it could pass pretty fast for me although not in actual speed! As I reached the 17km point or so the first guy in the 42km ran passed the other way. It was 32km for him. At this point I was thinking to myself just how back I was !! Although I was familiar here it was still tough and I was slowing down rapidly. Cumulative average pace hit 6:30 at 20km and was 6:32 at 25km u-turn point. Had a quick toilet break with the timer still running. I decided to also top up my bottle at the 100plus stations.
25-35km : Suddenly was hit by gusts of cold wind! Soon after it started to rain pretty heavy. Saw a barefoot runner and I increased pace to run with him for a while. It was getting really cold at this point and my HR dropped to the 145 range. I found it difficult to speed up as my legs started to feel a tad heavy. Cardio had a lot of room but not the legs. This route is basically retracing the ECP way back to the Bay Gardens in the East. I was amazed of the stream of people still 'on their way' on the other side of the path, even at the 33km point. Marathon walkers I guess.....
35km-40km : New territory going pass the Bay Gardens and into Tanjung Rhu. People were dropping like flies over here and I passed quite a lot of them. However, still quite a few 21km people labouring on the route at this point in time. Some of the guys who passed me earlier were walking at this point. I did my best to keep my pace and not slow down further. Mentally, I was calculating the possibility of completing within 5hrs and at this point I knew I could do much better.
40km-42km : As I reached Nicoll Highway, my strides shortened and I quickened my steps to sub 6:30 pace. It was at this point that I regretted not doing so 3-4km back ad I realized that I did have the capacity to maintain this speed for the final 5km with no issues. The rain was getting heavier again. Passed the finishing line plenty relieved.
42.195km in 4hr 44mins 04secs....yet again my GPS watch registered a shorter distance of 41.7km! Based on the time and the race distance of 42.195km, the average pace over the elapsed time is 6:44 min/km. I am just picky because this was such a tough tough run!
This ranks in terms of effort and suffering in between the Genting Climb of 2010 and 150km Stage 1 of tour De Bintan of 2011. Always feels good to punch through the top 3.
So what's next? well, I've Ipoh century ride in July and a holiday period in June with the family so lets keep it at that first. I should expect a few personal cycling trips but nothing firm yet. As for running, I'm really looking into TNF at this moment but not firm.
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