Disclaimer: In return for a sponsored race slot by JustRunLah!, here is my review of the race.

As with my other reviews, I do attempt to provide an objective account of my race experience, focusing on various aspects which you my look out for as I’ve deliberately written in italics 🙂

Race Category
This year’s edition of the Sundown Marathon featured multiple distances – though this time with the addition of a 5km non-competitive race to the existing competitive 10km, Half Marathon and Full Marathon distances.

As I am not particularly comfortable with running at night (I prefer daylight visibility and I love my early bedtimes!), I opted to participate in the 10km category.

Pre-Race Matters
Race Entry Pack Collection was held from the 20-22 May from 10am-8pm at the Suntec Convention Halls. Late Collection was also made available, particularly for overseas participants, at the event site itself on the day of the event. There were complaints of lengthy queues at the late collection. However, when I dropped by around 8.15pm, the queues for collection seemed non-existent.

The Race Precinct
Flag-off for my category (10km) was at 10.00pm. Baggage deposit was available without much of a queue (I deposited my baggage just before 9.20pm). As the F1 pit building was situated right beside the Singapore Flyer, I conveniently made use of their (air-conditioned!) restrooms instead of portable restrooms provided by the organisers. Here’s the layout of the race precinct.

The Race
Flag off, according to my watch, was at 10.01pm. The initial portion of route was adequately wide (bearing in mind that I had positioned myself quite near to the front), hence I encountered minimal obstruction. The 10km race route was actually pretty loopy. A few notable challenges included the darkness (expectedly) and the presence of a flight of stairs which runners had to descend just before the 4km mark. Other than that however, the route was largely flat with the exception of some bridges.

A total of 3 hydration stations were available across the 10km route, with the latter two serving both chilled 100 Plus and plain water. Distance markers were present throughout the route and though I don’t seem to recall many direction signs, there were volunteers dispersed across the route to guide runners accordingly.

What I really did like was the accuracy of the race distance. Measured on my Garmin FR15, the distance came about to be exactly 10.0km! Have a look below at my route data from Strava. This contrasts to one of the previous 10km races I had participated in, The Performance Series Race 1, which had a drastically inaccurate race distance for its 10km category.

Post-Race
Thereafter came the Finisher’s Medal. And now if I may mention one of my favourite reasons for participating in the 10km race instead of the other competitive categories – the ability to catch public transport home!:)

That’s all for me for this review. If you wish, you may check out my personal blog here 😀

Cover photo credit: Sundown Marathon’s Webpage.

Today’s TRI-Factor Bike race marks the 2^nd leg of the TRI-Factor Series. One could choose from categories ranging from 5km to 56km and the organisers also added new categories of the Cycle Run Challenge (bike-run-bike) this year.

It was the first time that I am participating in the 56km category and it was also the longest distance I have ever clocked. Naturally, I was anxious as I had never cycled this distance in my life and did not train specifically for this race (yikes, again!). But I made sure to do what participants usually do to prep before a race – i.e. read all the rules and regulations, check out the route (including how to get there), tag my bike (this unfortunately took a long time as I had mini-brakes on my handle bars and the tag had to be hung there), eat and hydrate wisely, and rest early.

This morning, I awoke at 4am and made my way down to the event site, which was somewhere along Republic Avenue and behind the Nicoll Highway MRT. It was still very dark and it took me some time to figure out directions and where the start point was. Despite the cool weather, I was perspiring! It was a pleasant surprise to be offered Lucozade (by a guy carrying a mobile kit) to quench my thirst.

The race flagged off with all the 56km riders first, and my wave – the Women’s Open – was the 5^th group to be flagged off at about 5.25am.  I looked around me and realised that there were very few female cyclists in my category, where are all the women? Anyway, I smiled at the two girls next to me and we wished each other well before taking off.

To make up the distance of 56km, we had to do 8 loops of 7km each. The first U-turn point was less than 1km away and I think the organisers purposely put it there so one does not speed up too much at the start. 😛 There were 4 U-turn points per loop so I did feel a little dizzy having to do a total of 32 U-turns after 8 loops! And, if I did not have my odometer clipped on, I probably would have lost count on the number of loops I had completed. The route was not as flat as compared to racing at East Coast Park as Nicoll Highway is slightly elevated in the centre and the Crawford road U-turn point is on the top of a slope. While this is a common running route, runners usually do not have to do 8 loops of it. For me, slopes are a killer. Thus, to keep going, the key for me was to conserve energy and not go all out in the first few loops.

I am very glad to have completed my first 56km ride but the best part for me at the end was the free bike wash provided by Karcher so I needn’t clean my bike again when home 🙂

Thank you my team mates for a fun day out together! We all sure enjoy ourselves today! ?

Rey was supposed to be running with us but due to an injury he couldn’t run and Hao Han have to take over. Luckily substitution of team members is allowed and as long as the bibs runs in sequence there will not be any problem. Good that the organisers considered that Sundown Marathon is just over, a lot of runners may not have recovered yet. Although Rey couldn’t run, we were hoping that he can come and serve us water and and food or help us massages our legs while we wait for the next turn to run again ? Just kidding, we all wishes him a speedy recovery! ?

Our team name is called the ‘Chin Chye Runners’ because we were like anything when we are discussing about what team name we should come up with ? We are running the mixed category with 6 runners running 100km relay. A total of 31 loops at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio park with the first runner running 6 loops while the rest run 5 loops.

I had still not yet recoverd from the marathon last week and unfortunately I kept coughing since Thursday. Have not been running since Sundown marathon because my left leg is painful. I believe is because I did not wear compression for Sundown marathon so must believe compression wear really helps! Last year I wore compression stockings to run a 42km and I’m very fine and can even run the next day but now my left knee and the bottom of my left foot hurts so much that I walked tip toeing on my left foot for the past few days. This few days I just massages my legs and wear compression for recovery.

This morning, I woke up with my leg still my any better and throat really pain with every single cough. But still I look forward to the relay run. I have never participated in any sports day running events during my school days period so since weeks ago, I’ve been quite looking forward to this event. I just aim to finish the run with no extra injury and don’t want a strain to become a permanent injury. Actually is it a strain or a muscle-ache I also do not know ? I consult a doctor on Friday for my cough and at the same time asked about my leg and the docor says: Oh your leg like this is very normal after a marathon lah. For the pain take Panadol can already ? So I am quite relief because my leg is just fine! ?

The weather was good today during our entire run. Luckily no sun at all to roast us! The few drops of rain is really great! I’m thankful to it! Although I am very tempted to walk but seriously saw no runners with bibs on is walking! And I am very prideful to say I did not walk at all ? For the first few loops, the route for the run is not indicated properly and the volunteers are not ready yet so some runners ran more at some part and some runners ran less at some parts of the park ? Running with ‘bai ka’ and cough is no joke but both my ‘bai ka’ and cough is not ‘life threatening’ that I couldn’t run so I just keeps on motivating myself and telling myself ending soon and will be my turn to rest ??

During our turns to rest we just talk, take plenty of photos, play card games and socialise around making new friends. And of course eat! There is too much food from the event organisers. Bee Hoon, sandwiches, fruits, noodles, cakes, muffins, curry puff! Am not a picky eater so I’m fine with the food ?? And thank you Kelvin for the snacks! Thank you Chiu Ping for the picnic mats and thank you Thomas for picking me up! And thank you Eugene for the card games! Thank you for the Photographers who help us take precious photos! Thank you event organiser for the event! Seems like I got no contribution ? Oops! ?

There is so little teams participating in some category that for example everyone in that category can get podium because only got 3 teams or may even be the only team that participate in that category ? But think that the medal should not be a general medal for both the 50km and 100km category ? If this year I had signed up with a team of 6 women running the 100km relay, we will get first! Because got no other competitors, but getting first this way won’t feel any glory or pride right ?

So in the end there were only 4 mixed teams, 4 men and 2 women in a team that run the 100km relay. By right they were 5 teams. One team went MIA, don’t know what happened. We came in 4th. We were late by about 20 minutes than the team that came in 3rd. It’s way much nicer to say we came in 4th position than we came in last right? ? It’s quite a pity because we run so hard but still missed the 3rd team by 20 minutes which is quite a lot. But because one team ran with 5 men and 1 women, basically they should not qualify for podium right? But we just let it be because they are quite senior in age, they run fast and hard and we are happy for them too ? It is not about winning. Sometimes in this little things we learnt a lot and can relate to other things in life. Be happy and be happy for others ? Be ‘Chin Chye’ like our team name ?

Next running event: Batman Vs Superman Run 26.06.2016 ?

[Friendship bond by running]

It is really my honour to have met these groups of friends through running and I’m so lucky and blessed to have them as friends and some who I feel are like elder brothers and sisters ? I learnt a lot from them, not only about running but things in life too. The amazing part is that before running brought us together we are totally strangers but we are now friends who jokes around, chats about everything else and all sorts of nonsense too ?

So just 3 days after completing the Full Marathon at OSIM Sundown, I was ‘scheduled’ to run the PCCW (Pacific Century CyberWorks) Global Charity Run.  This is a 5 km race, a unique one as it is one of those rare few events that are held on a weekday.  I joined last year’s as I thought it was a great idea to contribute back to charity through my new found passion.

This year is the third in the series, but my second since I started running seriously.  The venue is at Silver Leaf, Gardens by the Bay, as was last year’s.

PCCW Global, the sponsor for this event, is an international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider.   $50,000 was raised and the cheque handed over to the Singapore Cancer Society during the start of the race event in a simple ceremony.  The Singapore Cancer Society is a community-based voluntary welfare organization dedicated to minimizing the impact of cancer through public education, screening, patient services, financial assistance, research and advocacy.

With a limp yesterday, I was carrying some cartons for delivery as a medley of jobs that I took on recently, I was wondering if I could actually run on race day.   But a runner’s honor must be kept and I got the bib and singlet ready in the evening.  (Race Entry Pack collection had been a breeze held at Keypower Sports Outlet at Velocity.  Though the free gifts were less than the usual, it was after all for charity and very much value for money already.)

In the morning, my son also had to make a small sacrifice to wake up extra early so that I have adequate time to send him before leaving for my race.  I put on a plaster on one of the big fat blister that appeared at the bottom of one of my toes.  I was wondering to prick it so that I could run actually.  Decided not to, also after being advised by friend SY.  And I put on the Injinji socks to try out for the race too.  I didn’t dare to try something too different for the marathon itself but after the race, I think I should have worn them for Sundown.  The blisters would have been avoided.

The socks were very comfortable and for some miraculous reasons, or just my prayers answered, I didn’t feel any pain for the duration of the race.  I ran in the Newton shoes.  I was able to run and not walk or limp.   It was still, a short course, 5 km.  There was one hydration point but as it was a simple looping route, you could easily just grab a drink again if you need.

I finished in about 33 minutes according to the big timer at the finishing point, even stopping to snap one picture, carrying the phone in my hand.  I had thought I might have to walk and taking pictures would be a better utilization of the extra time.  As it was, I enjoyed the race and then quickly collected the medal and Tee, took some pictures and left for home as some assignments awaited me.  It was also a bonus to run today as it is Global Running Day.  Just too bad to miss my friend SY who also ran with an injury at the race.  I take a much needed rest now and will run my favorite these days, the 10 km towards end of the month.

The Sundown Marathon is Singapore’s first night race. With its humble beginnings back in 2008, starting with only 6000 participants, it has since become the largest night marathon in Asia today with a figure of over 25,000 participants this year. Sundown Marathon has firmly established itself as one of the highlights of the Singapore running calendar.

The Sundown Marathon is definitely not for the faint-hearted, as participants are faced with the additional challenge of running through the wee hours, with categories such as the full marathon flagging off past midnight.

REGISTRATION

Kelsey and I are usually really early sleepers, and we often feel sleepy even when it’s just 10pm… so we have absolutely no idea why we signed up for this event haha. We knew that it was going to be a torture to stay awake and run and yet we still decided to sign up for it.  The idea of being part of this grand event probably just robbed us into signing up for the half marathon category.

RACE PACK COLLECTION

The race pack collection was held over a span of three days on the weekend before the actual event at the Suntec Expo. Besides Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore, Sundown Marathon is probably the only other running event that has a large scale race expo in Singapore. You can find booths from most of the well-known sports outlets, including Key Power Sports, Runninglab etc.

We collected our race packs in the afternoon on the second day of collection and it was a smooth process. There were no queues at that timing and we simply walk straight through the counters. Next up, it’s shopping time! There were some really good deals going on and our advice to runners, stock up your gears only during the expo. You really do save quite a fair bit.

We stocked up on our GU energy chews because it was going at only $2.50 per packet, which is a decent discount from the U.P of $3.50 or so. We also got ourselves 3 pairs of Injinji socks at a deal of 3 for $39, which again is a great discount from the U.P of $19.90 each pair. Injinji is one of our favourite brands for socks because the individual slots for each toe really help to prevent blisters for long distance running. It really works! So check it out if you are having issues with blisters. I do remember that the socks were going at an even crazier deal of 3 for $30 during the 2015 expo, but I guess its inflation at work.

There were also freebies going around during the expo too. 42race was giving out free bandanas with just a simple email subscription to their website and Gymboxx was giving out vouchers with free 1-day gym pass.

Overall, it was an eventful expo and while many runners may find that the expos are pretty much similar every year, we still get really excited to browse through the booths.

RACE DAY

We made our way to the race site via the MRT and alighting at promenade station, which was just a short walk away.

Interestingly, when we reach the race site, the first thing we saw was this huge cage where teams are pitting against each other in a game of dodgeball. Apparently, this was part of the new initiative known as the Sundown sports zone, to spice up the atmosphere in the race village. It is a competition where teams sign up and compete for the top prizes. Interesting concept, but we are a little skeptical if that was what runners really want. After all, there wasn’t much crowd of runners attracted to it. The sports zone was located far away from the main race village so it felt more like a segregated event. We thought it would probably be a better idea to let the runners be the participants of this sports zone for free as a post race fringe event.

Since we had some time to spare before our category flag off, we decided to walk around the race village. Soh Rui Yong, one of Singapore’s top marathoner, was the ambassador for this year’s event and his face was spam all over the race village. A huge pity that he wasn’t present at the event though! Otherwise, poor Kelsey wouldn’t have to take a photo with just the poster.

There were many booths selling food for the hungry runners as their post race meals and boy were we so tempted to get some of it even before we ran. There were lots of varieties, ranging from Japanese food such as rice ball and udon, to western cuisines such as wraps. We held ourselves back and promised to come back to the booths as a post-race reward!

After a tour of the race village, we went ahead to deposit our bags at the baggage deposit located just beneath the F1 pit building. The efficiency of the bag deposit was pretty impressive, considering that there were some runners collecting while others depositing their bags at the same time. This is the first race we have seen, that is held at the F1 pit building, which utilises the building for baggage deposit rather than the usual makeshift tentages. Thumbs up for that!

Lastly, it was time for our pre-race ritual – Visiting the portaloos. (because we love to poop. just kidding) Another great experience with the portaloos as it was well spread out around different areas of the race sites. There were 3 sections of loos with about 20 loos in each section – An abundance of loos.

So far so good, all was well, until the moment when the starting pen was opened to runners.

Unsuspicious of anything, we went ahead to what seemed like an opening to the starting pen where a large crowd of runners was funneling through a small entry.

As we moved further in, we were alarmed to see that there were barricades all around us to prevent us from moving further ahead to the starting line which was around 200m in front! Across where we were standing, we could see another group of people streaming into the 200m of empty area that separated us from the starting line. It turns out that there was more than one starting pen and we had unknowingly entered the one catered for runners running above 3hours!

OH.MY.GOSH. ?

So basically, we were stuck together with this whole group at back of the starting line probably fated to be in the last wave (faints), as people on the other side of the barricade continued to stream in to fill up the space at the front… There were alot of people in this group obviously upset with this situation. All of us had came early to the starting pen but we were now stuck at the back! There was a lack of information being passed down to the participants regarding this and how on earth were the organisers supposed to know who are the 3hours and above runners with no indication on our bibs?!? Many runners were angry at the security, but of course, we do understand that they were just carrying out the instructions given by the organisers.

Some runners attempted to climb over the barricades and many were warned and scolded by the security. Things got really out of hand when one frustrated participant just slam open the barricade and charged out the front of the starting pen. The opening between the barricades allowed many others to follow suit and we were lucky to sneak out of it too ? . But you could tell that the security was so pissed off and he was barging through to fix the barricade as to prevent any more participants from slipping out.  It was quite a chaotic scene to be honest. I really do hope that the organizers can take such issues seriously in the future and if starting pens separated by timings were to be implemented, information has to be well disseminated to the participants way beforehand.

Anyway, we were lucky to get to the nearer starting pen eventually and we set off in wave 2. We would probably have been in wave 1000 if we were still stuck behind the barricades.

As usual, I accompanied Kelsey throughout the half marathon running at her pace. The Sundown crowd was really huge in numbers and there was little space to run in the first km. There were even short moments initially where everyone had to stop because the crowd was simply too large for the narrow routes. The crowd eventually spread out as we meet with a steep long upslope up a bridge soon after the first km.

We turned into East Coast Park (ECP) after 3.5km on the bridge and began another 3.5km stretch along ECP before U-turning out. It was a cooling stretch and the portion of ECP in the route was just about right (not as long as the FM where they spent almost 20km inside ECP). I enjoyed this stretch because it was just a straightforward flat path. However, we did encounter some issues with other participants here. There were some who just recklessly stop in front of us, and I had to brake awkwardly in order not to knock into them. It got a little frustrating because it was so dangerous for everyone!

Soon, we got out of ECP and reached Gardens by the Bay where the real problem struck us. Around 16km, Kelsey suffered really badly from the lack of long distance training which was accompanied by the sleepy bug. She began feeling nauseous and couldn’t carry on running no matter how hard she tried. It was really disappointing for us because we were only a short 5km away from the finishing point and she had a good chance to better all her HM timings previously. She decided ultimately that it was too uncomfortable to carry on running so she slowed to a stop. We walked on for the next 2km, but things didn’t seem to get better for her. Just as she was about to begin running again, comes the marina barrage slope.

It wasn’t a good idea to run up the slope in her conditions, especially with some 2km left to the finishing point, so we cleared marina barrage by walking. Following which, she gathered whatever energy she had left and ran as much as possible, with some walking in between. Finally, her dreadful night came to an end when we crossed the finishing line in a timing of 2hrs 45minutes. It was quite a surprise because we thought that it was definitely going to take more than 3 hours with all the walking. Nevertheless, she pushed on as best as she could and I’m proud of her.

Kelsey was still feeling all unwell and nauseous after the HM and we had to cut short our night at the race site so that she could get home to rest. Oh well, despite all the delicious looking food at the booths, we didn’t get any of it.

That’s it! Our Sundown Marathon 2016 came to an end. It was a mixed experience for us in terms of the race organisation, with some really good set up at the race village, to the huge deal breaker at the starting pen. I would also love to see more focus and investments into runners’ benefits and experience rather than churning out more unnecessary stuffs. The race pack is getting barer every year while the fees had continued to stay high.

Overall, it was still a good event but there is definitely room for improvements.

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A whopping 25 children from the Team Costa crew participated in Sunday’s Cold Storage Kids Run.

In it’s 9th year the Cold Storage run was held at Gardens by the Bay comprising of 1.6k and 800m distances, multiple age categories in both competitive and non-competitive versions. I’m fairly certain that with our turnout we participated in all but 2 categories.

Whilst the course itself was well organised, getting the kids into the starting pen was not. The start line announcer and the pen announcer were too close in proximity making the announcements difficult to understand. Parents were jostling and pushing their kids into the pens, inadvertently distressing many of the younger kids.

Much of this overcrowding was largely caused by the small space the village area was established in, making it challenging to weave through the crowds from the start to the finish line. Kinda like a square split in half with one side neat and orderly and the other side chaos.

Putting that aside, the kids however, had a ball. Many of them were in the same age category and able to run together. Some of the competitive sprinters did quite well. Justin placed 5th and Dylan 15th out of 232 in their category of 9-10 years old. Terrific effort on their part.

My girl on the other hand was much more interested in holding hands with her friend than running her race coming in 107/168. I guess she missed the idea that it’s “competitive”.

The finisher medal seemed a little flimsy when compared to other kids races such as the Safari Zoo, Standard Chartered or Trifactor Series. As an annual sellout event with numerous sponsors and focused on kids only, I think more consideration can be given towards the design of the medal.

With the 10th year anniversary in 2017, hopefully they’ll step-up the organisation for the crowds, a better medal and turning it into a memorable event for both kids and their parents.

We wrapped up the event with a meet-up on the grassy knoll for an epic group picture of Team Costa and their Little League members, with stunning Marina Bay Sands as a backdrop.

I’m sure we’ll be back next year for its 10th year anniversary. The crowds may have been insufferable to me as a parent but Trini had a great time. Hopefully she’ll remember to compete next time.

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Cheers

To run or not to run, that was the question which hounded me for a bit in Sundown Marathon.  Well, just a wee bit, because I was dead set on running the marathon.  A little doubt arose, primarily due to me getting an injury about a month or so before the OSIM Sundown.  I had Plantar Fasciitis (PF) years ago when I was working and suffered for 2 years, and the reason seemed to be the working office shoes that I was wearing.  Back in April this year again, I experienced the pain akin to that, coming on in the morning, feeling better after I stretch my calves in the morning.  On reflection (and research too), it was probably due to me switching my running shoes too quickly, with too high a difference in the heel drops and also my attempt to change my foot strike too quickly.  This was one of probable causes of PF.  Which is good learning for me, but the hard way too.  What if this turned into a stress fracture or something?

But anyway, I’ve already worked my way through my two big goals of this year : two half marathons within the week in April and the Spartan Super race in early May, and I wasn’t going to miss the Sundown this round.  (Moreover, I also agreed to help support run the Marathon with SimplyGiving though at race finish, I had garnered zero dollars for my effort !) So I forced myself to stop running daily and took time to recover.  From a high of 166 km in January, to a low of 92.5 km in April, and now about 45 km before the Sundown in month of May.   I had covered about 600 km through training/races since the last Marathon.  I tried to do other forms of exercises to keep myself fit though they were rather half-hearted as I still preferred running to push-ups, chin-ups, planks, bridges and the occasional cycling at the gym, plus swimming. I found myself gaining weight (also due to carbo load to some extent) and felt the urge to run.

Two days before Sundown,  I went for a 3.5 km primer run after last Sunday’s Straits Times Run in the City, 10 km race where I did a modest 1:12 hr.   And then found I was in a dilemma over the running shoes.  The Newton shoes had worn out pretty fast and my alternative New Balance shoes had gone through muddy water in Spartan Super, both were uncomfortable for the long haul of a marathon.  Should I get a new pair, but so terribly near the race?  I decided to stick with the familiar, so I just patched the eroded soles with some more black rubber.  I honestly too didn’t take into account the fact that I would have worn out so many shoes just through running – about 4 pairs already.   I ran another 1 km in the evening to ensure the patches were intact.  Now, I was more or less set for the big day.  Or was I ?

After my first full marathon (also Sundown) back in July last year, I had attempted the next full marathon Standard Chartered Marathon.  I slided from 6:12 to 6:28 timing, probably due to fatigue of races done in second half of last year.  This round with injury, was I going to make it?  A friend (SY), another avid runner,  jokingly told me I would complete in 7 hours knowing my pace and injury.   He also ominously told me that runners could die from marathon races… well, if they are not well prepared.  I didn’t really think so much of 7 hours as a goal (or conking out so soon).  I still hoped to finish faster because I thought I had learnt from the past two marathons and all the 34 races done in past 1 year 5 months.  Despite my conscious efforts to reduce my races this year, I was still doing about two races per month for past half year, continuing the trend for last year.

The day before race, I took out the bib and recalled that the collection about a week ago, was a breeze.  As was usual with the big races, after collection, we passed through the many running exhibit stalls including JustRunLah, OnCloud shoes, KeyPower International.

That day, I took a picture of the Sundown from my home, beautiful start – I thought.  I picked the same singlet that I had been racing in for most races this year, placing my cap, towel, shorts for changing etc into the bag.  This time, I took four packets of energy gel along with a small recycled bottle for hydration.

The race was to start at 12.30 am Sunday for wave 1 competitors.  I saw the live telecasts on facebook of the 5 km, 10 km races where my running friends were participating in.  Then I set off before 10.30 pm using public transport this time.  Got there early but the crowd was just amazing.  Managed to deposit bag quite quickly though.  My friend, Francis,  had completed his 10 km race and kindly passed the energy patch for me to try.  He left soon after giving me the instructions on where to put the two strips on the body.  I held onto them till just about 10 minutes before the race began and stuck them on.  I soon forgot about the patches on my body.  I kept to my plan of consuming the energy gel every 9 km or so.

So after all the reading/research, I told myself to pace myself properly this race.  Which meant I was wearing the Soleus GPS Mini that I won in a lucky draw which explained the color choice (young sea green).  Actually, I was also wearing the compression socks (shocking red) ‘free’ from the compressport rail run, and ‘free’ 2XU compression tights from my early queueing for the OCBC Cycling Event a number of weeks ago.  No sponsors for old and slow male runners like us, but hopefully I continued to get lucky for some of these draws.  It would get too costly to sustain all the races I was signing up for.

I looked at my watch every now and then for the first 10 km trying to maintain below 9 min pace.   At the beginning, it was still quite alright, but we hit a slight incline.  Slowed my pace down further and continued on.  I got sleepy too despite the gel with caffein.  Night was warm with little wind.  Day before it had rained quite heavily, and there was a drizzle in the morning back home in the West.   I felt more keenly the impact of the surface of the road on my soles and suspected that the sole rubber had eroded much, especially so on left side, due to the pronation on my left foot.  I didn’t bother to check as it would not help me.  I put the thought away and focused on completing the first 10 km.

The second 10 km was a bit more challenging, but it passed by too as expected.  The half marathon races had helped.  Still, I started to feel the strain of the injury after 20 km.   When I bent down to tie my shoelace which had come loose,  I felt the tightness as I stood up.   I was getting hungry somehow too.  I started to focus my thoughts on just running.  Follow the front folks who were running.  After 22 km or so, I started to count every 1 km, and looking forward to the next hydration point.  I had  carried  the recycled water bottle in my left hand most of the time which I tried to fill with the 100Plus or water.   Good thing was I don’t feel any chafing hurts which I had suffered in the past.  But my feet were hurting badly, like broken into two halves, the left foot especially.  I decided to put my backup plan to work.  Walk briskly every 60 seconds or so, and run every 180 counts or longer.  It worked to some extent.

After I took my third packet of gel at 28 km, I was wondering could I last another 14 km plus.  I told myself, I had come this far, sure can make it and will make it.  I was talking to myself in the head more and also to stay alert.  I had skipped taking the banana at one of the stops because I thought it was too early and starting to regret it.  I continued to walk and run, varying the counts depending on whether I was panting too much.  I also tried to remember whatever I had read, like Chi running.  Breathe through the diaphragm, take smaller steps, shuffling but trying to keep the cadence, and even curling the body somewhat as you get more exhausted.  But I tried to straighten again and felt better and so I continued to run a bit longer, walk for shorter duration.  I had stopped looking at my watch as regularly because I found myself too preoccupied with pace and it wasn’t helping at that stretch. I was more used to running without any gadget and hated to carry anything extra.  Soon, 29 and then past 30 km.  I gave a silent prayer as I didn’t hit the wall at all thus far, and had no leg cramps, just the feet hurting which I managed to ignore to large extent. 31 kilometres, was I glad to get over it.  My feet was hurting badly but I tried to tell myself that the sooner I reached, the better off for my feet.

(Let me digress a bit to the scenery around the runners.  The early morning scenery was quite nice where you can catch the skyline with the morning sun and trees, otherwise it was mostly just darkness with the occasional stars in the skies.  The only complaint I had was along the beach route, where surprisingly in the late night to early morning hours, besides us runners, there seemed to be a lot of smokers around polluting the air.  There was also a stretch where the familiar rubbish dump smell permeated the air.  It was a staple unfortunately as long as you have to run a marathon along that route.)

Strangely at 32 km, I felt a resurge of energy and told myself, only 10 km left, forget the past, treat this like many of the 10 km races I had done in the past half year.   So I psyched myself up, and I picked up on my paces, overtaking more than two dozen runners as most were walking somehow at that stretch.  I continued for about 2 km.  I must have hit a running high somehow in the midst of this race.    I stopped to take the drinks, didn’t take the bananas again, as I felt full somehow, perhaps the effect of gel and the patch on hindsight ?  But a short distance away, another volunteer offered a small banana which I took.  Only 8 km to go, can I maintain the pace, can I better my last PB ?

If only I could maintain the same pace but I found myself slowing down again, though not to a walk but slowing down after the hydration point.   Perhaps I had taken too much drinks and the body was trying to divert some energy to digesting ? The last 5 km saw another incline, up Marina Barrage and down.   If I ran at 9 min pace, it would take another 45 minutes, so I started calculating in my mind, pushing myself.

Then 3 km to go and it started to drizzle a bit and I looked forward to the downpour.  But it kind of fizzled out too.  Then last 1 km, when I thought I could finally get a breather, we have to go first half of it up the bridge.  (That’s what happened in life too, isn’t it.  Sometimes you think you have done all you could, and everything was finally going to settle, then a turn of events seemed to make it more challenging.  You just have to battle on, if you give up, that’s the end, if you continue, you could still succeed.)

By then, I was just running without pausing anymore , and willing the pain away from my feet.  In some sense, PF had won, but I had also beaten the odds of finishing with an injury and no, I didn’t get a PB, though I did beat my friend’s friendly target.  I completed in 6:41:13 adding another 13 minutes to last Marathon unfortunately.  I didn’t feel as tired in my legs (which meant that I was doing something right too) but my feet were killing me when I finally stopped after the finish line.  I collected the finisher medal, Tee-shirt, banana, 100Plus and sat for a few short minutes this time before collecting my bag.  I took the picture of the hard-earned medal, took off my socks and realized that my two big toe nails which were recovering from bad black toenails were bleeding again.  My left foot felt like broken into half.  And my shoes, worn out with rubber layers gone on left foot as suspected.

After putting on some foot powder and wearing back the shoes, I walked gingerly off to the MRT and made the long way home back west, feeling tired but satisfied that I had beaten the third monster that I chose to battle.  Mind over body, to run another day, another race… Limitless indeed is the mind if you put your heart to it.  Steely determination sees one through most adversities.

And that Sunday’s Sundown was even more beautiful.  Yes, I believe there are more runs in me, and I will better my first PB.  Now, I just need time to recover from my toes and my feet. And that’s the story of how a 53 year old runner with two years of running experience got his third full marathon done in span of 10 months.

I’ve never thought I would strike a full marathon off my bucket list into my second year of running!

Signing Up

Flashback, I signed up for Sundown Marathon at the race expo of Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2015. The race entry fee was at an attractive price of 85 bucks. Payment on the spot wrapped up pretty quickly and the sign up entitled me a past year race singlet. The deal is sealed and the clock starts ticking!

Carbs, Carbs and more Carbs

Fast forward, slightly less than a week before the big night, friends and I were happily sharing their Instagram-worthy of carbs-driven breakfast, lunch, dinner and even supper; some have learned to eat a much bigger portion than usual, while some struggled with the fear of not being able to burn them off, and of course, some took this as an excuse to indulge and unleash the gluttony inside 🙂

Race Night

The team began counting down “10 hours to go…” “6 hours to go” (a member turned panicky who started spamming “gan cheong gan cheong over Whatsapp!”) I can totally relate to her mild breakdown lol! With this being my first and also her first 42km run, I was very afraid of what’s in store for us, it felt almost like we are running towards oblivion! Serene – a special shout out to you; if you can read this, I just want to say that I am happy for you, you’ve got yourself into completing the grueling run!

4 Hours before Race

About 4 hours before the flag off, we had our final carbs-loading session plus chin chye catch-up that consists of traditional and criss-cut fries at Carl’s Junior, Marina Square. We were happily exploring the wrist bands that were obtained at race venue and jokingly discussed if some of us are going to use the pace/km as a baseline for us to run beautiful but fast enough to meet the cut off. The pre-race jitters were pretty much taken care of as we have been joking around and chatting about other happy things in life.

1 Hour before Race

We met up with more friends that we’ve known through various social media platforms and of course we had to do a group shot! And before long, we headed into the start pen! I handed out Haribo gummybears to some of us and it has proven to be a popular pre-race chewy among us. The 5cm by 5cm pack soon went empty by 7km lol!

Flag Off –

1 to 4 km – It was a happy go lucky mood for us, Serene started her power walk while Kelvin and Thomas were still near. Eugene and Si Ling went missing in action and probably have rocketed off. It wasn’t a hearing problem for me but I definitely heard Fiqah calling me out in the tunnel! It was great to see her for the first time, after exchanging multiple words of congrats and encouragement over Instagram and Facebook.

5 – 6 km – Eugene and Si Ling continues to rocket out (in other words, MIA), we had to conquer the first elevation up the expressway. Someone alerted us of a cameraman ahead! While we were prepping for a shot (20 meters away before we believe he could get a good focus), the cameraman decided to take a break! *crap!*

7 – 33 km – My nightmare at East Coast Park began. We made an unspoken agreement to regroup at almost each water point. I’m so happy that they offered 100 plus isotonic at most of the water points! At this point, my gummy bears were officially out of stock but there were bananas given! I realized there could a potential shortage of volunteers at some water points. I hope other bloggers could bring out this point.

Serene’s power walk sometimes surpassed us guys but we managed to keep up most of the time. We caught the 5.30 hr pacers and I gave the pitiful look to Thomas and Serene. They know what I want and gave me their blessings to go after the yellow balloons. After 2 km, I stopped and realized I wanted to do this with them so I waited at a water point for the trio. As this is my first time doing a 42km, I started feeling discouraged due to the soaring thighs and hurtful soles. Kelvin was so kind to keep watching my back from in front. It was a good time Serene went for a lady break that I did some quick stretching before we ran again.

34 – 40 km – Tummy feels weird. Something was coming. I wanted to give up. I had an emotional and mental meltdown inside. I regretted that I did not ask Serene for cab fare (she offered me tissue though :)) We finally made it out to Bay East and saw the public loo which is approximately 50 meters away but the road leading to it was in the opposite direction which is after a long u-turn into the car park. I splattered, literally.

40 km – Finish – I let out my first verbal curse when i saw the “500 Meters To Go” marker and Kelvin was like “Huh? That’s all ah?”. Serene and Thomas waited for us, After regrouping, we were pacing and syncing up to cross the finish line together. We seemed to have been photobombed by a fellow runner flashing his underarm hair when the camera flashed lol. None of us cried when we ran past finished line – although we predicted someone in our group will 🙂

Post-Race

I’m happy I did it and the proudest thing is probably the honor of being able to do this with a group of passionate runners. We started and ended together, leaving no man/woman behind. I could not have survived the mental torture at 26 km if not for them. No matter how fast the pace and speed differs between one and another, be it completing before sunrise or under it in full burning force, every runner at Sundown Marathon 42km did almost the same amount of distance, had our teeth-biting moments; and if there is any extra takeaway, it is the companionship which I deemed to be the most valuable.

The night was young, the race carnival filled with people, runners and volunteers of the event. The atmosphere was all vibrant and filled with enthusiasm as runners warm up in prepare for their long distance run. Cheering voices could be heard in the distance as players engage in games such as dodgeball and basketball in the makeshift court outside the F1 pit building where the actual race would be held.

Race pen:

The race pen opens at 9.30 pm for the runner of the 10 km race. There was some simple light stretching exercises before runners were flagged off. The level of enthusiasm was high during the first wave, but slowly dropped again as we waited to be flagged off (I didn’t know I was in the third wave as I inched my way forward to the start line with the crowd). As soon as we know that we were about to be flagged off, we got all excited and eager again. Bring on the night race!

Actual race:

Roads were cordoned off for the runners and the road was relatively wide. The running route was not congested and it was a really pleasant run. The night breeze was enjoyable and it was a refreshing race without the scorching sun. The race itself required some running up slope, down slope at the helix bridge and also some stairs climbing near Marina Bay Sands.

Hydration points:

There were about 3 hydration points along the 10 km route. It wasn’t enough in my opinion. It might be because of the warmer weather these days but I’ve since learnt to take 2 cups every time I pass the hydration point. 1 cup of water is not enough. 2 cups of 100 plus left me feeling thirsty and dry mouthed. So the best combination for me was 1 cup of 100 plus first then 1 cup of water.

The overall event was enjoyable. Finishers were given their medal and some refreshments at the end of the race. There were even movie screenings at the race village for everyone to enjoy. The volunteers of this event were also friendly and encouraging.