Sunday, June 1, 2008

Completed 42km marathon!

Finally, I managed to finish the entire SUNDOWN marathon! It took quite a while to break from the crowd, but once we reached the airport runway area, the crowd began to thin out. Initially I made good pace along the airport runway/ECP stretch (which turned out to be 18km), that stretch seemed forever. But once we hit Siglap park connector, we had to negotiate a series of stairs and bridges!

My legs started cramping at about 24km. That was terrible. But the Siglap park connector was quiet, and a good place for an evening run. Too bad I was starting to feel my legs cramping up. Then when we hit Bedok reservoir, the pathway was just sandy and was a terrible surface to run on. Many people were already walking and I was here at about 4 hours elapsed.

Then I hit Tampines onto Loyang estate and it started raining very heavily. That completely dampened my mood. There were many runners who headed straight for bus-stops for cover, but many of us pressed on, or else we would have really terrible timings.

The rain subsided after I passed Netheravon road (Commandos camp), and because of the rain my legs were giving way so I walked the rest of the 2km to the finish line. I clocked about 6hrs 30mins.

It's not too bad I guess, considering this is the first time I am going for a marathon and have not trained for it! Don't count the sporadic 10km that I do, nothing is comparable to the amount of exertion for this marathon. Actually unlike a day marathon, it's not the hydration problem, nor the stitch nor the heatstroke or breathing difficulty that most runners will experience, it's the cramps!

Because of the cool weather warmed-up muscles cool down extremely fast, and many runners faced cramps when the pace slowed down or when you start walking. Once you start walking, you find it very hard to return back to the original pace that you were at. And I had already started to feel onset of cramps, which kicked in when the rain started, and that's it, I couldn't run effectively anymore.

Okay, I just need training. Hell, it's 42km! I think with training I can clock 4hours 30mins. But not too bad eh? I managed to finish 42km without giving up, Singapore's first night run, the Adidas Sundown marathon.

People ask me why I am so crazy as to pay $65 to torture myself. Hey it's the challenge man! But they were right, with every km that passed after the 32km mark, I kept asking myself why on earth am I doing this to myself! Will I train for another marathon again? But I am quite happy with my current performance without training, at least I managed to complete it.