AMARAN EDISI BASI! SCMS 2010 - The 42.2km Journey Vol. 2

Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2010 - The 42.2km Journey Vol. 2

Mukaddimah

SCMS 2010 was originally planned to be my first full marathon run (FM) but the temptation of running my first FM with many friends around and on my home soil has relegated SCMS to be my second after I dared myself to be a gung-ho in running SCKLM 2010. I did my clicking for SCMS 2010 very early (without much thought as I normally did for the other races) and on hindsight that was fortunate as the entire 19,000 slots were taken up in less than 3 weeks time! Unthinkable!

Prep, Initial Plan and Tweaking

One of the biggest lessons that I had learnt from SCKLM 2010 is to be able to start a FM run injury free (or almost injury free). This is a key factor since you could easily pick up new injury (or injuries) during the race, on top of the usual cramps and pains. Hence when I suffered my plantar fasciitis (PF) after Genting Trailblazer 2010, the main concern was more to recover from such injury than building up mileage for SCMS 2010. A self assessment that I could attempt SCMS 2010 was made after I managed to survive the last LSD a week before the race. The degree of concern as well as the extent of the injury on the PF was much lesser compared to the shin splints prior to SCKLM 2010. In my mind, barring any additional injury which may be suffered in the run, with the trademark snail pace, I would be able to complete the run in sub 6 hour (I did my FM SCKLM 2010 in almost 5:59!).

The initial plan had a bit of tweaking when the King of all Kings, i.e. King Mambo aka King Lambong aka Diket Menchanak aka Abg Jaws aka Abg Syakir Ishak, asked me whether I wish to join him for a lari-lari makan angin in Temasek. Hmm, a lari-lari makan angin pace for the no. 1 King cannot be near to 6 hour, he could be bored to death running at that pace. So, I challenged myself by telling him, we could run for a sub 5:30, still slow for him but at least that would possibly bore him to sleep only. So the goal post was shifted a bit and frankly if I want to achieve a timing of sub 5:30, it would be far from jalan-jalan cari angin pace but rather running until keluar angin kus-kus pace.

T-1

T-1 was the travelling day from KL to Singapore and race pack collection and the huru-hara sampai kaki lemau session of the RBUs at Novena Velocity Mall with the peeps, i.e Diket, Ray, Azmar, Zack, Kak June, and Aza. Those moments were best captured by Diket, Ray and Zack in their blogs.

May be it was the due to the trip and window shopping session as well as spending the night with great peeps, I had almost no pre-race jitter. We still bantered jokes and lambongs till 11.30pm before calling it a day. At least there was no Twilight Zone issue that we need to endure that night.

T-0

Actually I did not have much to report on the running itself. No drama, no bushmen, no pangsai (but small one done in a proper toilet), no wall, no busted knee (Thank God). Due to that, point forms would be appropriate:


Starting

• Went out from our hotel quite late, around 4.45 am to be exact.
• Jogged down to Orchard Road and saw a sea of runners already moving slowly.
• Me and Diket climbed and jumped into the pen and since we were in the second wave, the colour of our bib made no difference at all (i.e. we were at the back pack).
• Almost 20 minutes to reach the starting mat.

1-10km

• Run slowly in the huge running traffic.
• The first few Kms, just following the crowd and stuck at no less than 7.20 km/min pace, zig zaging looked futile albeit with some moderate squezzing plus “elbowing” as necessary (we said “excuse me” of course).
• Saw few runners already walking at KM3-4 point! (ayoyo, this is a full marathon run, walking may start at least a shade below 20km (unless you were injured lah).
• Running side by side seems impossible almost all the time, so no chit chat and just “layan perasaan” pace.
• Did not know the route at all, just run in the dark, wide road or tight lane, I follow.
• Left Diket for him to attend his small (may be big) business somewhere at KM 6 or 7 and continued plodding alone.
• No pace notes, supposedly to follow the King but remembered the King said it would still be OK to reach KM10 at 1:15 for a sub 5:30 target.
• Timing at 10km CP [from runningpix – 1:15:33]

10-21km

• The route now going to East Coast Park (ECP). Diket caught up with me near the entrance to ECP (or somewhere before) and continued to run in his makan angin pace (i.e. faster than me lah, what do u guys expect?).
• Forgot to ask him what would be the target time to reach 21km and 30km (hence now the target was whatever felt right/comfortable/better than SCKLM 2010).
• Running in ECP was mentally challenging as the lane is tight, needed to slow down, stop, zig zag, squezz plus elbowing as necessary.
• Reaching the U-Turn was felt like forever.
• Timing at 21.1km CP[From runningpix – 2:40:59]

21-30km

• Still in ECP area and started to feel sluggish after 23-24km.
• Stopped at one of the toilets for small business.
• Bumped into Kash may be around Km25? Said hi, she asked me to continue plodding.
• Started to imagine that the distance markers were located so far apart (read- dah start lengit).
• Calves’ muscles were stiff (no more pushing, if not sure cramp maaa)
• Did not know what timing to target to reach KM30.
• Timing at 30km CP [From runningpix – 4:02.01]

30—42.195km

• At last we left ECP but now running under open sky, scorching hot.
• No view to enjoy initially, construction sites, lot of people already walking slowly, tried to run as much as possible for every KM.
• At last had a refreshing sea view on the way to the Marina Barrage, windy a bit but HOT HOT still.
• Reached the long bridge near Marina Sand, of course I walked to the top and jogged going down but walked again once I reached the U-Turn, initially thought that the finishing was just a around the corner since I heard the gendang already but at the last water station it shows 2km more..aiyak!
• Last 2km seems like forever, tried to run all the way but just could not lift the spirit once I saw another bridge to pass (not steep pun tapi dah lengit). Over there Diket ran beside me and we chit chatted a bit.
• As many others, been misled by the dummy finishing gantry, darn! Could not stop and walk with so many people around, had to cover my water face to finish the race with a run.
• HABIS, TAMAT, KHATAM, FINISHED full marathon SCMS 2010 with a net time of 5:41:38



Conclusion

I managed to finish my second FM this year. Even in the eve of SCKLM 2010 I was still doubtful to run in a full marathon category (I registered for both FM and Half Marathon (HM) for SCKLM 2010 and kept the HM bib till the morning of the race day, just in case I lost my guts). At the end of the day if you have been running consistently and with the appropriate preparation, completing a full marathon is a doable feat, difficult but doable. If you put a good finishing time to nail, then you have to train more and harder. Nothing is easy in a marathon run, regardless whether you are a fast or slow aka snail pace runner like me. The most important thing is to enjoy your run and complete it injury free and that would be the best result of a marathon run as far as I am concerned.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL FINISHERS OF SCMS 2010!