Singapore Marathon - completed

Yipee, completed my first marathon ever on the 7th December. I was targeting a sub-four hour marathon and almost pulled it off with my minimum training plan. Almost. I guess not enough mileage. So for me, the bare minimum training is not good enough for the sub 4 marathon. I guess it needs refinement and maybe add in a bit more mileage earlier on for my next plan. Probably, need two 32 k for distance run.

Anyway, JT (my friend) came over the night before the marathon to stay because it was easier to go together. I know it was a rather sleepless night for me because I was nervous about the marathon and couldn't really sleep. Anyway, I managed about 2-3 hours of actual sleep although I went to bed at 10pm and set the alarm for 3am. JT came at around 11pm and I was still turning around on my bed.

I woke up at 3am to have a few pieces of bread with peanut butter because I knew it would be a while before I get to eat. I put on my gear that I prepared the night before. I brought 3 packs of energy gel with me and a pack of candies so I would not run out of energy during the run.

My friends and I arrived at the starting place around 4:45 am. Some of those in my church decided to gather for a short prayer and communion before the run because we were likely to miss church with our expected timing. But with the huge crowd and some miscommunication we only started communion at 5:10 am. We finished 15 minutes before the flag off time. After that, a bunch of us quickly went into our respective pens. There were the sub 4, sub 5, sub 6 pens and we went to our respective target groups. I inched my way up to the back of the sub 4 group because my aim was to finish just below 4, if possible.

The run was very nice and the weather superb. The organisation was good. There was some major congestion from 38km to 42km but I was already walking by then so it did not bother me that much. For those whose legs were still fresh, the crowd (mainly consisting of slower 21 k runners) would probably have irritated them a lot more. The cheering crowd on the side was excellent considering Singaporeans are generally not very expressive. There were those that went out of their way to cheer the runners and this encouraged me. Even up to the last few km, I still had enough energy to acknowledge a smile towards the cheering crowd.

My strategy was to run an even pace throughout, assuming that my legs though untested should be able to pull through. However, that was not the case and slowed down drastically at the last 10k. I got some problems with my shoe rubbing agaisnt my ankle around 8k and had to stop to paste some plaster on my right ankle. Fortunately, I brought some. The stop cost me about a minute from my pace time earlier and I had to make up for it the next 4-5 kms. However, by 28k I felt my both my quads cramping up and had to walk for a while. Whenever I could after that, I ran when I felt like I could and walked when I could not. Finished the marathon in 4:11 minutes. I am quite happy with finishing the race and thought the time was not a bad start for a first. It was definitely a great experience and might even try another one next year.

The Singapore Marathon - 3 days

I am getting the jitters just thinking about the upcoming Singapore Marathon. The distance will be far... farther than I have ever ran before. However, there is little I can do about it except to calm my nerves. When it comes to this stage, no amount of last minute training will help. That much I know. Training the body follows the laws of nature - the body needs time to strengthen. Although I am an addict to urgency and last minute errands, I know that is no way I can apply the same technique when it comes to my body. I have learnt it the hard way on my first half marathon...ten over years ago. Then, I was not prepared for the half but forced myself to run and was limping from the 18k point onwards. It was memorable because it was painful. And the fear also put me off running till a couple years ago.

Anyway, fast forward to today. I was talking to a few people from church who were running the marathon and am simply appalled by some of their lack of preparation. In fact, one person I talked to had the furthest run of 8km according to his wife. A whooping 8km and he is running the marathon. Man, I feel for him. I hope he walks the entire journey because if he even runs 8km during the race and walk the rest of the 36km, he would not be walking for a week after that. On top of that, he is 2 years older than me, which means he is an old uncle by Singapore's standard. Another person I know, has done about 10km about 2 weeks ago. We are not talking about 10km 5 times a week. 10km every 2 weeks. Even with a walk, run strategy, 10km is really underestimating the distance. Maybe youthfulness is their only redeeming factor, that or pure talent. Maybe these people want to create a ground where they will see the need for God. Even then, God created the laws of nature and if we break them, we pay a price. Regardless, I will pray that God be with all of us to keep us from harm. When compared to them, my preparation is so adequate - I should feel good about it....some people just have to learn things the hard way.

The Longest Training Run

I had a 32 km run on Sunday, 11 Nov. According to most of the plans I have downloaded, this seems to be the furthest recommended distance. However as I was finishing this run, I really had second thoughts about whether I can do the full 42 km. This was because I already felt like I could not continue any further. I walked a few times after the 20 something mile, cheated a bit by stopping for a drink and took every chance to stop at traffic lights (secretly hoping that the red man would stay a little longer). To continue for another hour, in my mind, would be really pushing the limit. If I felt this bad at 20 miles, can I continue for another 6 miles to finish the marathon?

According to those veterans in the internet, I should be able to. Yes, I did follow an internet training plan to begin with and the longest run was 20 miles (32 km). I, however, did cut out the 5-6 times per week run and made it 3 times per week. According to some, running any further would increase the risk of injury and might be more detrimental than just running a 32k. I guess it is always a balance between injury and training intensity. A running friend, Ben who has ran a few marathons and has been a pacer at the Singapore marathon said that I should finish 30km feeling like I can still do 12km. If that's the case then I will be in a world of hurt come the marathon because I was taking every chance to stop. I will know when the marathon is over, I guess.

Longer Run

Lately I have skipped a few runs. Given that I am already at a minimum number of runs per week, skipping one or two of my essential runs will likely hurt my marathon time. I did a my longer run - 29km - with some friends and my legs were very tired after 25km. In fact, I had to walk for quite a while. This is a sign that I might not be training enough to last the distance.
I'll try another 32km two weeks down and that would be the furthest that I will go for this round of training. Given my current condition, my timing will likely be above four hours. Hopefully, the last month of training might make some difference.

Quadthlon - Swim, skate, part one

I am glad the Quadthlon is finished. It felt like a distraction for me. The main fitness goal now was to train for the marathon coming end of the year but with the Quadthlon I had to dabble in a few things that I was not confident at.

For your information, I did finish the race which was the goal and I did it with only minor injuries. A few scrapes on the knee as I tripped on the swimming carpet. Luckily it was soft so I just picked myself up and continued running to the transition area.

The four disciplines - swimming, skating, biking and running - none of which I am particularly good at but I was at least confident of the run because I had been running quite a bit this year. At least, I figured I should not have much problem finishing the 6km run.

Swimming was very difficult for me. First, I suck at the front crawl. I tried swimming 2 laps in the swimming pool 3 weeks before the event and concluded that there was no way I could have finished the 500 meters with my current front crawl. Therefore, I decided to use breaststroke. I started out at the back of the pack because I didn't want to kick anyone in the face. However, I got the direction of the swim wrong and ended up being in the middle of the pack. Also, I realised that there are many whose front crawl is just slow. In fact, I had to tread water for a while because I was caught in the middle of the swimming pack and could not overtake the few 'front crawlers' in front of me. Well technically I could overtake and kick them but that would not be a nice thing to do. Breaststroke is not a good stroke for these type of mass swimming event because it is slow and requires such a big gap to avoid kicking the other competitors. Unfortunately, it is the only stroke I am competent in. Needless to say I was ultra tired after the short swim and that contributed to me tripping on the carpet.

Skating was much better. I did wear my speed skates even though I did not think I would have save much time given that I still have not gotten used to them and I take forever to put them on. I think a pair of high end recreational skates with 90mm wheels would have been the fastest setup for me at my current skill level. I used the speed skates because it was a better learning experience than skating with recreational skates. As my skill increases, the speed skates will definitely be faster than the recreational skates. My skating instructor said that I will need one year to get used to speed skates but given my frequency of using them quite likely longer. I go for classes around once a month. I did have a small fall because one skater fell right in front of me. I avoided him but still had a controlled fall. Fortunately, I wore gym gloves so my hands did not get any abrasions. I talked to one of the spectators and it seemed like there were a lot of skaters who fell. I think there were only 3 main areas that was a little more challenging - a small step around 3 cm at the beginning, some bumps to slow down bikes and the u-turn. I was going rather slow at these areas to avoid falling but still fell because of the skater who fell.

If you are still interested, check up later on this site and I will write about the cycling and the running part.

Bitter sweet - London

I got rejected for the Flora London Marathon. It is a bittersweet feeling because I thought it would be a wonderful way to see London and was in a way hoping to qualify for the ballot. However on another note, it would be a rather expensive marathon as I have to travel all the way to London. Now that I have been rejected, I can come up with different plans for the beginning part of next year. Moreover, up till now, I only think that I can finish a marathon but have never ran above 30k before. In a way, the rejection might have save me some pain. Below is the rejection letter...

Dear Runner,

We regret that we have to advise you that your application to run in the 2009 Flora London Marathon has not been successful due to massive over-subscription.

However, if you still wish to run, please see below for a list of tour operators who may be able to help you enter the 2009 FLora London Marathon.

Yours sincerely,

Dave Bedford, Race Director

First Marathon - my training

December 7, given that I am healthy...I will run my first marathon. It has been 5 weeks since I started the training. Initially I wanted to download some plans off the internet as there should be quite a few. However, it seems that many of them requires you to train more often than I would like to spend on running. Also, I feel that running 3 times should be right for me both for time required and to prevent overusing my legs. As I had trouble finding a plan, I just modified one from an internet plan I found earlier in www.runnersworld.ltd.uk. My plan is to keep the plan's long run goal every week and modify its mid week training program so that it is only twice. One long run and two training runs. I found some article in the web that said it was enough but I cannot remember where the link was. I am a bit unsure whether 3 times is enough as most of the other plans I have seen so far would advise up to 6 times of running per week. I am sticking to my 3 if all goes well. One speed, one hill and a long run at the weekend. The speed and the hill all requires around 30 minutes of running only. I'll let you know if it is enough on December 8. Anyway, I am not planning to win any prizes just plan to challenge myself at something difficult and fun of course.

Beginning to run

I started running around mid last year and I remembered 10k (6 miles) run was like the pinnacle for me. 10km was the barrier that I thought if I cross my body would be in a world of hurt. I came up with this idea when I was regularly running 3.2km in the morning 6 days out of the week trying to train for a half-marathon. Within a few weeks, I had some heel pain that would not go away and my knee was stiff all the time. Soon, I abandoned my half-marathon goal thinking that my body was not build for running. When friends told me they went for a 10k run, my expression was amazement. My exclamation would be something to the effect of "Wow! You did a 10k for a training run?"

One event helped break my mental barrier towards the 10km distance. Instead of being impossible, 10k became something difficult but doable. My attitude changed when some friends invited me to join them for a run at Macritchie reservoir in Singapore. Now for those who do not know, around Macritchie reservoir is where there are many accessible trails for running and hiking where distances have been marked out by the Singapore's National Parks board. However, it was not near to where I stayed so I had to fork out around $10 to take a cab to the reservoir. When I reached, all the friends there wanted to run just a small part of the reservoir for about 4.8km. The stingy side of me was thinking, I did not wake up early on a Saturday morning and pay for a taxi to run just a small part of reservoir. I wanted to go round the reservoir and that would take around 11km. And so, I did not run with the group and decided to run the 11km route by myself. It was difficult and I had to stop a few times but after a few times running the route it did not seem so difficult anymore. In fact, more and more from the original running group started to run the reservoir loop with me. Nowadays, if we decide to run around the reservoir, hardly anybody from our group does the 4.8km run anymore. Since everybody runs the 11km loop, even the "noobs" try the big loop even if they have to walk a bit of it. And so my 10km mental barrier was broken.

What I learned: For beginner distance runners like me, running one long run per week plus another short run might be better than 6 consistent short runs. For example, I think one 2km run and one 10km run per week works better for me than 6 2km run per week. Unless someone is conditioned or is naturally gifted in running, running daily might not give the body enough time to rest.