Singapore Marathon 2004 Report

I stayed at Hotel Asia , Scotts Road throughout the 5 days in Singapore. The half marathon race starting time was 6.30 am. Unsure of the extent of road closures and the time it will take to reach the Esplanade, I booked a taxi to pick me up at 5.00 am. It turned out that it took only 10 minutes to reach the Esplanade. I had more than 1 hour time to kill before the start. I spend this time wandering around the starting line and field (Padang) and going to the portable toilet three times. Amazingly there were dozens of portable toilets at strategic locations. This was so unlike the big races in Malaysia like KLIM or Penang where there are at most 6 portable toilets. Come-on race organisers in Malaysia, how much does does it cost to hire more portable toilets?

Pre-Race
There were also other useful facilities ; tents with various types of food (payable), bag storage, drinking water station, playground equipment for kids etc. In short, the organiser have really given much thought on the needs of officials, volunteers, runners and their family and children as well.

I came across Andrew, Bernice and Justin at the Padang. We chatted about our race plans. I showed Justin where the bag storage and later we went to see the full marathon start. We missed the start, but the crowd was so big that the back end runners were still walking towards the starting line.

After this I got into the pen for the sub 2.5 hrs runner while Justin was in the sub 2 hr pen. Standing next to me was Julian. We talked about his trip to Bangkok while waiting the firing of the start gun. Suddenly the front runners started to move forward, had the starter fired the gun? I didn't noticed but just followed the crowd walking towards the start banner.

The First 10 km
Past the start banner, I started to run slowly, cautiously while gauging the sensations of my left foot. Was there any discomfort or pain? At this time, I was still running beside Julian and chatting. After 2-3 minutes, the left foot was still OK and I increased my pace.

It was a comfortable jogging pace for me. My target was to run 65 minutes for the first 10 km. Due to an injury on the left foot. my modest race target of 2 hrs 15 min seemed to be achievable at this point. It was quite boring to run at this slow pace as my normal pace for a half marathon is 58 min. To minimise boredom, I spent the time looking for my friends running the marathon. Only managed to spot Alex and no one else. There was also a guy running in a wedding cake costume.

I reached the the 10 km mark slightly ahead of schedule at 63 minutes.

The last 11 km
The last 11 km is when I got into trouble. It started with a slight discomfort on my left foot. Shortly it started to hurt so I slowed down a bit and changed my running form to minimise impact on the left foot. Somewhere at 12 km mark, I had to stop and walked for a few minutes. The pain eased off and I started to run again. When it started to hurt again, I walked and ran and so on. Must have spent about 10-15 minutes walking. I was also getting tired mainly due to lack of training (low mileage) and possibly having my running rythm disrupted by the walk-run repetitions.

Inexplicably at the 15 km, I had the sudden urge to defecate - the toilets were in view but I decided to resist in order not to lose time. Instead I slowed down to allow the urge to dissipate. It did after some 10 minutes of running at a slower pace.

At the 19 km, the stretch towards the Esplanade bridge was exposed to the sun. It was damn hot. I could the sun rays burning my shoulders and exposed neck. It was time to push towards the finish if not to look good for the crowd but to reduce exposure to the sun. On the bridge I remarked to another runner "I am glad this will be over soon" . I was indeed more than motivated to sprint the last 100 m to the finish line.

My time was 2 hrs 19 min. 54 sec (Gun time ), 2 hrs 16 min. 42 sec (Chip time) in 924 position out of 2004 finishers.

Post Race
After the race and drinks, I went to the medical tent to apply ice on my left foot. Remarkably, there was a volunteer asking the injured runners (but conscious) on the type and location of their injury. I spent the rest of the morning to cheer on the marathon runners.

Summary
The Singapore Marathon organisers have done a great job to make the race enjoyable and hassle free for the runners and their supporters. Minor quibbles were the length of time it took to retrieve bags and inaudible loud speakers for the back end runners at the starting line.

If I go to Singapore again next year, I will take either the bus or airplane. No more KTM train to Singapore for me. I will not go into the reasons but suffice to say the train service was not satisfactory or reliable.

December Plan
Today (Wednesday) I did a recovery run at KLCC for 2.6 km. I still experienced pain on the left foot. I have brought forward the appointment with the specialist by one week to next Tuesday . I think I have a good idea where the injury lies if not I can describe the symptoms inn detail.

I may have to stop running for a few weeks. I can tell you that if this happens "It Sucks". What will I do then for exercise?