Sundown - my 10th half marathon !

I completed my first ever Sundown Half Marathon @ Singapore..  5^th edition of the race and they are organizing it for the first time away from the Changi/East Coast area and had it around the City/Bay area. It was an excellent choice in terms of logistics, route and scenery ! The half and full started at 12.30midnite while the 10k was flagged off at 10.30pm. Total participants was 28k with 11k 10km, 9k half and 8k full marathon. Very impressive turn-out as it’s only a 5-year-old event ! This was gonna be my 10^th half marathon (assuming I take into consideration both the 26km Malakoff as half since they are >21k !) and my 3^rd race in Singapore (after SAFRA Sep’11 and SCMS Dec’11) in 8 months.. Well, I just love Singapore and its races, period.. although it gets very expensive !

Had my early dinner with Hizam at around 6pm @ Pastamania North Point. Took a plate of Linguine Carbonara as part of carbo loading (too little too early which I paid for it later on at the race !). We then went to the Nicol Highway area (starting point) as early as 8.30pm to kaypoh with the 10k run and also catching up with Chris who’s doing his first 21k after returning from his injury. Spent time wandering around the large field, watched the 2^nd part of movie “Tower Heist”, no less than 5 toilet visits and lots of hydration – the kiasu me keep draining down water (which I also paid dearly later on). In fact, we got a little bit of tired of waiting. I kept yawning away ! Mistake no 2 - Should have just stayed at home and catch more naps instead of wandering aimlessly !

After the 10k was flagged off, it’s time for the 21k and 42k to gather around the entrance area. In fact, from the time I went into the starting point until the 12.30am flag-off, I spent a total of 1hr 15mins just standing there and waiting. Damn. This is the most boring wait I have ever done in a race. My target is to do a sub-2 to match my PB (Taiping 1:58), if not, at least hit a 2:00. Hence I stayed close to the 2:00 pacer.  Good thing I did that too as I realized there was a 2^nd wave of runners waiting to be flagged off when I made the turn at around 1k later.

I made my customary mistake of running too fast too early. When will I ever learn !! The plan was to keep at 5:50 pace in the first 10k so that I can do a much better negative split later on.. a 5:40 will nicely get me a sub-2. After I started running, I could feel my bladder was near full. Damn ! I didn’t feel it when standing and waiting but as soon as I started running, I could feel it shaking. Bad timing. Though I was tempted to pee at the dark roadside/field, which I would have done had it been in Malaysia but this is Singapore… and I don’t want to get caught !  Had to hold on to it until I could find a mobile toilet at around 8^th km. Lost around 1min at the loo. Despite that, I hit 11km at 1 hr sharp. The best stretch was at Marina Bay Sands. The crowd were appreciative with a guy giving hi-5s to runners, nicely dressed ladies screaming enthusiastically (unfortunately not at me) at a Mat Salleh who was running top-naked in front. Pretty fast and I was confidently I could do the next 10k easily in 60mins, that’s 6min/km.

Distance : 11km
Time : 1:00 hour

Body : Good

Mood : Looking forward to a sub-2 finishing

I spoke too soon and as I started turning into the Barrage, I felt an emptiness in my stomach. I started to get hungry and tired. I could feel an empty tank and nearly hitting the wall. Very soon, I felt dizzy (pitam) and had to stop, walk, stop for about 2mins to stay balanced and not toppled over. By that time, I knew the sub-2 is over. All I need is to complete the race safely. Bad fueling strategy ! I was cursing myself – I should have grabbed that darn Subway sandwich on the way up and I regretted not doing so. I trudged onwards and the stretch along Barrage where the 21k and 42k started to split was pretty dark and uneven road surface. Nonetheless, it was pretty soon a run-walk-jog and I repeated this again and again throughout.

The weather was also unusually hot and humid and for the first time in so many runs, I pour water on my head and body at every water station !  I felt that I have to soak myself in water to keep me going. The final 8k or so were run along some parks and river. Pretty dark and uneventful compared to the first 10k. Soon, I was pacing myself and did around 6:30 and I should be hitting the ‘tape’ at around 2:05. 5k down and met a couple of Mat Salleh runners whom we gave each other an encouragement pat on the back whenever the person passes by. It’s the kind of booster we normally give to runners who are walking and as a sign to say “you are so lazy, run, don’t walk !’ 3k before the end, I saw a middle-aged Japanese runner collapsed by the roadside and 2 medic were frantically calling out his name. He was turning, so I knew he should be alright. Maybe over-exhausted. Man, as soon as I saw that incident, I stopped and started walking. Somehow, such scenario always give me the cringe and that ‘no matter what, I want to end up safely at the finishing point’ ! Some jogs later, 200m before the end, another Mat Salleh was on the side walk, fainted but at least he didn’t look like he had a heart-attack. I could not garner the strength and energy to do my customary last km sprint.. All I could was a slow run towards the finishing point.

Distance : 20.62km (not exactly 21km)

Time : 2:04:31 (6:02’/km pace)

Body : Blah.. empty fuel tank

Mood : Blah. Cursing myself why I did the basic mistake of bad fueling strategy and started off too soon.

Overall : Glad that I ended the race with my 2^nd best time, and more importantly no injuries, no heart-burnt, no muscle aches..

So, another Sunday ended, another race.. I now will look forward to my 2^nd Full Marathon in 2 weeks time (Jun 24^th) !

Note : Heavy downpour and thunderstorm struck around 45mins after I ended my race. Real freaking storm. Salute to the half-marathoners who ended the race slightly later (like Hizam who did his virgin HM) and all the full-marathoners. I thank my lucky stars that I decided to turn my Sundown to a half instead of a full. It could have been a DNF had I do the full !!  Chris completed his HM on the comeback but not too sure what’s the timing – that’s not important though.