What I don't say out loud, I whisper here:: Std Chart Marathon Singapore 2013

This is my 1^st time repeating a marathon, Borneo was supposed to be a repeat after my FMV there in 2012 but due to work schedule (after their reschedule) I DNS the race. PBIM 2013 was also supposed to be my next repeat after Borneo, again due to work I had to DNS as well. So it was God’s will for me to have my repeat in Singapore Marathon.

Having to repeat same route is OK, but if your previous experience was bad, that experience will come and jinx you whenever you think of that particular stretch, to me, it was the stretch after 33KM. I still remember vividly how both my quads vibrating and standing at the Marina bridge watching the 4:00 hr pacers and the followers pack pass me by, followed by the struggle at 35KM up flyover and the final squeeze through the crowd to the finishing line. The weather was terribly humid, it was horrible. That was my 4^th marathon, from that marathon mark the beginning of series incidences of injuries that continued till August 2013.

So this is not just any marathon, it is THE race to put an end to what happened in the past 12 months. This is the race to get myself back into sub4 marathoner, cramp free, injury free and to conquer that fear of the evil stretch and to brave the final crowd. I am never been more ready than any race.

30 hrs before the race, I bang my right knee to the wall (don’t ask me how it happened, it happened anyway), good news is it wasn’t on the knee cap, bad news is, it was on the quads connecting to the knee cap, essential muscle for impact absorption for landing (to me). It was swollen and bruised almost immediately and the question came on mind was: Sunday how? I leave the question for Sunday and let the body does its best in recovery by going to bed asap.

Another drama happened on Sat before departure, I was at airport but my passport was not with me, lol! Don’t ask why, anyway I managed to get my passport later and took the next available flight to Singapore. Phew!

The Expo this year was nothing great, especially when the 2^nd surge promotion is most anticipated but nowhere to be found, other booths became boring, somehow me and Chua got a free spinal scan to show how tired is our muscles and possible spinal misalignment. LOL! If you think mine is out, u should see Chua’s…

After check in hostel, we proceed for carbo-loading dinner at Orchard. It was rainy day and we only managed to spot the meet up point before race then returned to hostel for early nap.

Woke up at 2:15am to prepare my Enercal drink and check on my right quads, still swollen but lessen, we departed at 3am. 1^st thing 1^st upon arrival at Orchard was to deposit my bag, having experience a suffering finishing last year, I prepared my amino drinks and extra changing clothes and some other stuff like battery pack and cash. Still having last year’s toilet rush in mind, I immediately used the portaloo located next to the baggage booth and proceed to meet up with the gang at coffee club at Wheelock Place (baggage booth is just located behind it).

Taiping mari.

This year we have much fewer runners from Malaysia (those that we know) and since not many ppl then there is not much waiting needed, at 4:15am we proceed to respective starting line. Due to raining in the past 2 days, the temperature is relatively low, it felt like this can be a good race, at least dehydration may not be the biggest concern for the moment. The starting packed as expected, we were relatively quite in front though I expect there were still thousands of people ahead of us despite the starting line is visible.

The race flagged off at 5am sharp, here we go!

I tested my legs for the 1^st few hundred meters at easy pace, no sign of pain although can feel d vibration at the quads, but it didn’t affect my pace as I slowly catch up whenever there is opening to overtake, unlike last year which I did a lot of zigzag to overtake, keeping in mind to reduce the muscles stress. The crowd started to ease after 2-3KM where overtaking become easy without have to change much direction of running course, smooth route is possible after 4KM. I double checked the GPS distance vs distance marker, it was already over-distanced by almost 1KM, I guess the tunnel and the city building has much affected the GPS tracking, but what the heck, 42KM is 42KM, it didn’t matter what the GPS watch said, all I have to do was to minus 1KM from whatever reported distance on the watch.

At 7^th KM I finally caught up with the 3:45 hrs pacers group and due to the narrow route I had to run on the side way pavement to overtake them, good sign, because I plan to maintain last year’s timing for 33KM, that would mean 3:45 hrs pacers would overtake me at around 30KM. Let’s see….

Reaching 8KM I suddenly feel the need to water the plant and passing by the same spot (looks the same to me in the dark), I decided to take things easy by slowly detoured to the bush and release, achieved PB in watering the plant and rejoin the run just before the 3:45 hrs pack, the run continued.

Turning into ECP at around 12KM, almost bang into runner in front of me who dropped his gel and made a sudden stop, at this stretch 2 males and 1 female suddenly appeared next to me, and they were chitchatting at 5min/km pace, LOL! Judging from their running posture and the way they talked, 5min/km was really an easy pace for them, may be not so for the female, but she was consistent and strong, reminded me of Annie.

At 15KM I took my 1^st gel as planned, somehow side stitch attacked and I had to slow down a little to relax the muscles, there goes the 3some pack and never seen them again until 21KM U-turn when they were about 400m ahead of me. In my own tracking, I clocked about 1:49 at 21KM (22KM on watch) and U-turn point at about 1:52, somewhat similar to last year, good sign.

As usual, after U-turn it was time to look out for friends on the opposite side to see how are they doing, only managed to spot Tay Poh Chye, who was about 2.5KM behind and right after him was Dora Yuki who was taking easy walk to drink at water station, LOL! Until the split which made spotting runners on opposite difficult, I couldn’t find anyone else, what happened to Chua, Jason and Gan? May be i missed them.

Reaching 23^rd KM, I felt the need to get ready for cramp prevention, took the gel at water station and swallow the 2 electrolyte capsules prepared, spent some time walk through the water station before I continue the run.

At 27th KM, the right knee started to give problem with the injured quads started to ache, had to squat down for abit of stretches and relax the legs, that was when the 3:45 hrs pacers (and the followers) zoomed past me !!! They overtook me faster than I estimated (30KM mark), but it was ok bcoz I was still on track for sub4 and target finishing time. Grab the banana from water station to eat later.

The run carried on with the view of watching the 3:45 hrs group further away from my sight until I couldn't see them anymore at the exit of 30KM, this was where the real run starts for SCMS. A quick look at the watch I was at about 2:40 mark, which made me on track for 33KM in 3 hrs and possibly can cover part of the 34th KM.

can see me ?

Upon reaching 32KM mark, the phobia of last year's cramp kicked in, I decided to talk a walk and eat the banana while relax my legs a little, there was no need to rush, making sure that cramp doesn't hit me is the top priority! LOL! Resume running after banana and still managed to cover abit of 34th KM within 3 hrs. Then ahead of me was the Marina bridge where last year I practically had to stop because of both thighs cramp and watched the 4:00 hrs pacers group passed me by with the followers. Trust me, I did watch my back a few times crossing this bridge to see if the 4:00 hrs group was coming, LOL!

After passing the bridge reach 35KM there was another gel station, nice for stock up some energy before the big rush later at 37KM onwards. Organizer offered nice black face towel (which was not cold) but I don't think anyone would carry the towel for another 6-7KM, I dropped it on the floor after a quick wipe on the face.

At 36th KM b4 the u-turn finally seeing the big crowd going up the final bridge at 37KM mark, I still remember seeing alot of runners stopped for stretching at the side due to cramp, and I did walked last year...but not this year, I was able to pick up pace with smaller step, before reaching the final climb of the bridge finally experienced some pull at the left calf, yeah cramp came visit, but it was ok, I can deal better this time.Coming down to 38KM I witnessed the scariest crowd ever in any run, the opposite side with the 10KM and 21KM joggers and walkers was absolutely crazy!!!

No more unnecessary zigzag and dodging for this year, I decided to run as straight as I could and expect some minor human collisions, at some point between 39-40KM I even had to run out of the route to the opposite traffic and rejoined the crowd later. Just when everyone thought the finishing line is ahead, the organizer gave us a sharp turn to the right before making another turn to the finishing without any proper separation for different distance category, it was total chaos and towards the end of it I needed to cross a barricade because I thought there specially set up barrier was for the FM runners to have a special lane to finish. But too bad the finishing line for FM was right in the middle of the road, how thoughtful....lol!!

The was no final sprint for this run, too risky and my left calf already sending signals many times that the cramp may strike anytime, but I got to cross the finishing line at ease.