A "Fool" Print

We were blessed by the overnight rain yesterday. The weather was feeling cool in the morning. Thinking of enough time, I took an MRT to the start point for the half marathon. Gosh!! How wrong am I. It was a pretty long wait for the train. To add to my dismay, I needed to change the train at Outram Park station in order to reach Harbour Front Station, in which I was 15mins late for my run eventually.

The route was pretty hilly at Sentosa. Furthermore, the path was narrow and with so many people participated in the race, I had to constantly slow down or avoided the runner in front and the sides. At the Universal Studios, I saw a couple of runners slowed down to take a picture with the cartoon characters. Some of the USS staffs also came to cheer for the runners. 

Once out of Sentosa, we were turned into the expressway and straight to our end point at Padang. It was nice to see the highway was closed for the run which I certainly welcome the ample space after being cramped for the last 10km. Perhaps due to my lack of training and the numerous slopes unexpected, I have difficulties in running at my usual pace. In the last 1km, I experience a "cramping" feeling in my calves and tight. In the end, I took 2hrs and 30mins to complete. One of the slowest half-marathon timing I ever completed. As for the completed experience, I couldn't say the run is any better than any of the previous years. Unfortunately, I still found that there is a lot of improvements need to be done as compared to overseas race.

 

Nevertheless, I still wanted to give a try for this last SCM race held in Singapore. The bag deposit section was having a long queue. I was ten minutes late for the flag-off time and the distance between the starting point and the deposit area was one street away..

Having no sleep, my mind was detached from my physical awareness. I tried to keep a consistent pace along the way. After 10km, I would feel the impact from the lack of sleep and the pain coming from my right kneels. At 14km checkpoint, I was totally famished and took a banana to refill my energy.. At 16km, I had to took a muscle spray on my right kneels. No good!! The spray was not effective. At 18km, I took a muscle rubbed hoping it might soothe the pain. Well.. It did help a little.. but the most effective still coming back to the deep heat applied at 22km. I jogged slowly and be careful of the pressure exerted at my right foot landing then after.

The sun had risen at 8am and the weather was getting hotter. The East Coast route had always been the most demoralizing route in the entire race. One-step after another, I kept telling myself “not to stop” at least till 30km. After 30km, I couldn’t let myself to halt. In my mind, I said “I must get out from East Coast!!”. Kept repeating the same statement to inspire myself to continue.. I did not want to stop. At every water point, i snatched a cup of drink and ran with hand holding on it and drinking at the same time. At 32km, I strapped my Patella Brace at my right kneels to reduce the pain.

Yes!! I have done it!! Running non-stop for 34km!! With a last drawn of strength, I had 1.10hr left to complete the race within 4.30hr. Unfortunately, my body condition had failed me. At 35km, my two thigh muscles cramped. I told myself that no matter at what costs, I still could make it. At 37km, my head felt dizzy and my eyes could not be opened. Finally, my mind began to give up and the world seems spinning around me. From a pace of 5mins to cover 1 km, it had reduced to 10~12mins. I walked a little bit but most of the time kept jogging at a really slow pace.

After 30min, I was about to reach the finishing line finally. The time was registering for 5.00hr. I knew I had failed my attempt to do sub 5hr.. Nonetheless, I won’t give up. I had to run faster before the clock ticked to 5.01hr.. 100m before the finishing line, I gathered my last every strength and dashed towards it bearing all the pains at my right kneels and two thigh muscles.. The time - 5:00:49..

Although I had slight improvement over the previous year attempt, I was still very glad with the result. 2 reasons: (1) I was continuously running for the entire race; (2) Despite my body condition, I had managed to finish the race without going the hospital. Haha..

The next one?? Ultra-Marathon.