28.09.2014 – I officially became a half-marathon finisher o(^_^)b
The Straits Times Run at the Hub 2014 flagged off at the newly completed Sports Hub. The 21km route brought us along the familiar Nicoll Highway, Raffles Place, past Marina Bay Sands, along Gardens by the Bay (“GBTB”), the Marina Barrage, GBTB East, Tanjoing Rhu and finally ended in the National Stadium – yep, finishers got to run ON the tracks towards the finish line… under the dome.
It was an amazing experience, and for most parts, a relaxing run. The only “spoilers” were during the parts of the route where the half marathoners and 10k runners converged. It got plain frustrating as the paths weren’t meant to accommodate that amount of runners at a single point of time. The clusterfk at GBTB was an annoyance, the bottle neck at Tanjong Rhu was miserable, and last 1-2km or so was a pure pain in the arse… with the 10km walkers pretty much jamming up the entire path. Yeah sure, that could have been avoided if I’d finished my run like significantly faster but…
At a RunKeeper time of 02:44:59, it’s is pretty much 10min off my projected finish time and 30min off my “ultimate goal time”. Mhmm… however, considering that it’s my 1st ever attempt at one, and how unprepared I was (due to injury and other distractions i.e. gaming, hiking, swimming), I’m pleased as punch to have finished it below 3hrs.
This experience was a good trial for the SCMS Half in Dec.
I started off really slow, way slower than my 10km pace, as I was worried that I’d get winded. The first 12km of the run went by pretty easily. It was around the 14-15km mark that I started to feel my feet, knees and hips ache. I could still push on ok though. At 18km, I hit the wall. I started to walk, jog, then walk some more. 19-20km was painful. I was about to start cursing every step and had to remind myself that my ability to run is a blessing… I should be thankful that I made it that far. When I saw the 20km marker, I just activated my second wind and didn’t stop running till I crossed the line.
I’ll train harder for the SCMS. I’ll also be experimenting with energy gels, to see if I can actually stomach those stuff w/o throwing up or having a major tummy ache. Perhaps I’ll just eat an entire bag of gummy bears. idk. One thing for sure, I’ll definitely have to increase the distance of my long runs. Merely doing 8k-ish just wasn’t good enough (duh). I mean, I knew that of course, I just didn’t manage to work out a decent schedule. I’ll have to get used to running 15k on a regular basis, along with a shorter run or 2 of about 5k each week.
Anyway, training will have to wait. I’ve got Fansipan to conquer next, then a Hong Kong-Macau trip, where I’m looking to do my very 1st bungee, to look forward to the week after Vietnam. October is gonna be a great month.
\(^_^)/
Simple Complexity 