...my 21km journey...
the much talk about Singapore Marathon organised by Standard Chartered came and went yesterday...the race seemed so surreal, like as if it didn't happen...probably because it was my first half marathon and i didn't think i would make it pass the finishing line in one piece...thankfully, I did make it...and it was a fantastic race...though I am feeling the after effects...but it was all good...i'm still waiting for official timings and photos to be posted online...but probably cos of the overwhelming response this year...it might just take sometime...on my trusty Timex, it clocks 2h29mins...i manage to run under my targeted time of 2.5hr!!...and strangely, I didn't feel tired at all...my body could still take it just that my knees were aching pretty badly...but overall..it was good!!..
so the day started at like 4am...i had to literally peel myself outta bed...thank God I could hitch a ride from Bob...otherwise...I might have been late for my race...when we got there, there were many people waiting a the start line for the full marathon to begin...Bob, Yvonne and myself were walking to the bag deposit area when I suddenly heard..."PAM!!"...and when I turned around...i saw HY all panicky and drench from her perspiration...and the next thing i knew...she stripped to her running gear in front of me...and told me to deposit her bag for her...heh...that sleepy doh doh overslept even with 8 missed calls...i think i found myself another 'shui shen'...
after depositing our bags...everything went pretty fast...i didn't have much time to stretch or warm up...i pop one power gel...drank a bit of water...went to the toilet and just went straight to the starting line..i was feeling a little dizzy initially probably cos of the unusual wake up timing...i remember telling God that I can't backed out from the race cos i very much wanted to this marathon...and thank goodness the dizzy spell just disappeared the moment i started running...i'm glad that thru out I was able to pace myself comfortably...and hydrate myself sufficiently as well...one of the inspiration and motivation for me to keep running was when I remembered the story of The Hoyts...the video and the song kept playing in my head...reminding me that there's nothing too difficult...there's nothing impossible that I can't do with God by my side...and when I saw this lady (she was on ST today) who pulled the tyre with her for the entire 42km just to raise awareness for the environment...it spur me on further...so yup...i just kept running and running...after a while I was like Forrest Gump...
while running, i saw bob n yvonne...and we decided to run with each other till the finishing line...or rather (according to them) they were using me as their pacer...the last 5km (which seemed like eternity) we just ran along side each other till we crossed the finishing line hand-in-hand =)...the moment we stopped, i could barely feel my legs and my knees and calves were aching like mad!...i was or rather almost every other half and full marathon runners were walking around like penguins...I waited for Rong to finish her race...then waited for Net to finish hers...I am actually honoured and glad that I went for the race with both of them...if not for the training sessions we had for the past few months...I might not have been able to clock such a timing... =))
here's the question everyone has been asking..."Would I do it again??"...without any hesistation..."OF COURSE!!!"...and I will do the full marathon next year...42.195km...how am I gonna do it...I dunno...but I just will...=)) and I wanna do more races next year...definitely!!...it's addictive till the point I could not sleep last night...my adrenaline was still pumping even though my body feels tired!!...but all's well ends well =))
so the day started at like 4am...i had to literally peel myself outta bed...thank God I could hitch a ride from Bob...otherwise...I might have been late for my race...when we got there, there were many people waiting a the start line for the full marathon to begin...Bob, Yvonne and myself were walking to the bag deposit area when I suddenly heard..."PAM!!"...and when I turned around...i saw HY all panicky and drench from her perspiration...and the next thing i knew...she stripped to her running gear in front of me...and told me to deposit her bag for her...heh...that sleepy doh doh overslept even with 8 missed calls...i think i found myself another 'shui shen'...
after depositing our bags...everything went pretty fast...i didn't have much time to stretch or warm up...i pop one power gel...drank a bit of water...went to the toilet and just went straight to the starting line..i was feeling a little dizzy initially probably cos of the unusual wake up timing...i remember telling God that I can't backed out from the race cos i very much wanted to this marathon...and thank goodness the dizzy spell just disappeared the moment i started running...i'm glad that thru out I was able to pace myself comfortably...and hydrate myself sufficiently as well...one of the inspiration and motivation for me to keep running was when I remembered the story of The Hoyts...the video and the song kept playing in my head...reminding me that there's nothing too difficult...there's nothing impossible that I can't do with God by my side...and when I saw this lady (she was on ST today) who pulled the tyre with her for the entire 42km just to raise awareness for the environment...it spur me on further...so yup...i just kept running and running...after a while I was like Forrest Gump...
while running, i saw bob n yvonne...and we decided to run with each other till the finishing line...or rather (according to them) they were using me as their pacer...the last 5km (which seemed like eternity) we just ran along side each other till we crossed the finishing line hand-in-hand =)...the moment we stopped, i could barely feel my legs and my knees and calves were aching like mad!...i was or rather almost every other half and full marathon runners were walking around like penguins...I waited for Rong to finish her race...then waited for Net to finish hers...I am actually honoured and glad that I went for the race with both of them...if not for the training sessions we had for the past few months...I might not have been able to clock such a timing... =))
here's the question everyone has been asking..."Would I do it again??"...without any hesistation..."OF COURSE!!!"...and I will do the full marathon next year...42.195km...how am I gonna do it...I dunno...but I just will...=)) and I wanna do more races next year...definitely!!...it's addictive till the point I could not sleep last night...my adrenaline was still pumping even though my body feels tired!!...but all's well ends well =))