Done with the main report, here is the more personal report: Looking back on the half-marathon today my target timing was a sub 2hour which I barely hit which a gun time of about 2hours 8mins so the nett time will be below 1hour 55mins. The run felt strange today namely hitting a fatigue wall prematurely than what I would normally do.
Did very light stretching before running and my muscles still felt tight throughout the run till the 12km mark where I finally “burnt-in” on the warm up and sped up the pace. But that didn’t lasted for long though – I slowed down drastically to a jog from 17km onwards and it’s difficult to pick the pace up from there – Doesn’t sound too good for my year end marathon.
I remembered able to pull up all my half-marathons with an ending sprint but I simply could not do it today. I believe I can largely deduce that being primarily attributed to my lack of long runs prior to the event- I had not ran regularly for about a month since my exams started and ended just last Friday. Besides not being in condition, I didn’t get much sleep at the stay over last night. Interestingly, nobody at the sleepover seems to have slept well either, but getting a cab for our cab convoy at 4am didn’t prove much of a feat either.
The weather was clear and fair where most were expecting rain. Nevertheless the heat round the finish saw a large number of people suffering cramps at the end point. There was one instance where this army boy who got stuck and almost fell back after getting cramps on both of his legs when climbing a flight of stairs at the spectator stand. Lucky Darius was there to catch him and provide aid too, so we were pretty much like “medics” in singlets for a period of time there.
The carnival below the spectator stand was too crowded to comfort. Even cooling down stretches on the ground proved to be a feat as anyone could simply just trip over you without notice. There was a casualty in this year’s race, a runner collapsed after finishing his 21km, it goes to say even if it goes in contradiction to motivation techniques and pushing one-self to finish a race, always have a place to listen to your body when you least expect it. You can push on in another race some other day, don’t take chances with life at stake.
Just like every year, registered for the Swissotel Vertical Marathon on the spot at the event booths (beats mailing or faxing entries in), met Ahlong there too who also registered for the event.
Dropped by to Marina Food court for lunch with the track gang where Elrick came by too in his shouty Commando’s Attire and his stories of his 8 day field camp last week (which rained everyday). Window shopped around the area before heading home for rest thereafter.
Last but not least, cheers to ChenLing and gang who completed their maiden half-marathon around 3Hours, you are all winners – finishers
Sheares Bridge Run/AHM 2007 -21km
Total Mileage for week: 21km
Total 2007 Accumulative Mileage: 651.15km
Need to bump up my runs during the holidays!
Yeah the route was definitely wide enough for everyone to run even though the number of participants have increased.From 65000+ people last year to 70000+ this year! Great to see so many people still able to run even during the last 3/4 of the race,not walking.:grin:
Just recalled that during the flag off there was abit of poor organising as the competitive runners have to run through a small gap to start off,instead of removing the barricades which was at the start point whereby some of the non-competitive runners were gathering at.Perhaps the organisers were afraid that by doing that everyone would have run off at the same time therefore they should have think of a better idea to prevent that.
The organisers were well prepared by putting up water points at many km intervals,which they have 100plus or normal drinking water.Personally i thought having 100plus at the water points was a bad choice as it contained gas.I took a slip of the drink around the 17km mark i don’t feel any better & actually felt worse.H2O might have been a better choice but given that 100plus was one of the sponsors,i dun think the organisers have other choice:mrgreen:
Using the floating platform as the staging area was a good idea as it provided sufficient washrooms and space to deposit the bags.But post match maybe it could have been more lively by letting all the runners gather together adding to the atmosphere.Speaking of having the floating platform as the staging area,it was still some way from the start point.Luckily for me,i did not wait at the staging area for the race to start.While depositing the bags was a breeze,i thought they should have used the same method by having the participants of a particular number range (eg N500-N1000) to collect the bags which might have better outcome.
Finally although i completed the race successfully,the timing was way beyond my expectations.I was hoping to complete it around the 1hr40min range but i only came in around 1hr50min,perhaps it was fatigue due to i only slept 3 hrs the night before,but hey,no excuses.
Hoping to do better in the real run in about 2 months time!
PS:Good run Shaun! Will drop by the sp stadium today to see the track & field team in training!
Wow 1hr 50min is a very good timing, considering how long you’ve slept the night before too!
I wont be able to make training today, but I have few trackmates there to meet ya when ya pop by, cheers!
wah envy you, can run that far … *clap*
Thanks! Results are out ! Go to http://www.safra.sg/singapore_bay_run.aspx?pageid=1531.
Saw your trackmates in training on Monday,but not too many of them maybe beacuse of half marathon the day before.Maybe i will drop by again next Monday to do some ippt training as well.Hopefully by then will see more of them in action.:smile:
Moreover, thanks to Claudio you can check out your photos of the event at sportsphotoX as well. (Needs registration ahead)
http://www.sportsphotox.com/