Anyway, my goal then was just to reach 21Kms and stop. I will not put my body under so much pressure and stress knowing that I lacked the training. And so I went to Singapore with my son two days before the Marathon. Checked in at the Orchard Hotel which was about 500meters from the starting line. Ate carefully before the day of the marathon... No laksa, no spicy noodles, no nasi lemak.. Picked up my race kit somewhere near Marina Bay Sands. As usual, the pick up venue was so efficient. But there was no running expo! I was so looking forward to that. Me and my son started to look for Hammer Gels which are normally available in any sports shop here in the Philippines. Well, I looked at all the sports shop in almost all the malls near the hotel but no Hammer Gel. Realized a day after the marathon that Hammer Gels in SG are only available in
Come race day, I woke up at 5:00 am with the race starting at 6:00 am.. Unfortunately, my support team consisting of my sister and my son were in deep slumber so I decided to just go to the starting line by myself. Well, actually that was really the plan. The plan was for me to run upto 21kms only, afterwhich I will call them to pick me up somewhere along East Coast Park where the 21km mark is.
Gun start... what's so noticeable in Singapore is the tremendous amount of participants for the full marathon.. there were a lot... some even looked like it was their first time to run! But, how would I know. I'm sure they had some sort of training before doing the full right? I was somewhere in the middle of the pack. The pace was actually very comfortable not that fast and not that slow.. give and take about 8mins per km which was ok for me.. passed by Chinatown and reached East Coast Park in two hours. Having no Hammer Gels with me, I opted to buy chocolates instead for my energy replenishment. I had this in between km 15 to km 21.. Reached km 21 in 3 hours.. not bad.. Remember the plan? I was supposed to stop at km 21.. call my sister to pick me up and go home... Well, that didn't happen.. I opted to continue running because I felt alright until km 27.. my right foot starting hurting again.. I figured I can still run through the pain so I did until km 30... then I actually called it quits.. I figured running 30 kms without training was already good for me. Called my sister to pick me up and gave her a landmark where I was at along East Coast Park. What happened next is a stroke of good luck..
(1) My sister and son took such a long time to get to East Coast Park that I hopped on the sweeper bus (bus came about 45 minutes after I stopped) which I thought will take me to the finish line;
(2) The sweeper bus moved VERY SLOWLY at SNAIL PACE staying at the back of the last runner. Didn't know that the driver was trying to fill up the bus. I go "Sheez, should have stayed where I was and waited for my son to pick me up." I actually texted them to wait for me at the finish line. They were already there at 11:00am.
(3) When the bus was filled, it started moving faster.. I was happy thinking that I will be seeing the finish line and my son soon UNTIL... one of the race coordinators hopped on the bus and told everybody inside that they want US to finish the race. So, they will drop us off somewhere along the route wherein we need to RUN/WALK going to the finish line. I go "What?!! I have no intention of finishing the race... Di nila ma-gets.."
(4) Had enough of a break (about an hour) that when the bus came to a stop to drop us off, I felt refreshed. Went down and decided to just walk to the finish line (maybe about 5 kms more). I can actually run it but I felt embarrassed since most of the runners inside the bus were injured and wasted. I, on the other hand, felt ok but just really decided to stop. And then I realized I left my Sony MP3 player in the bus. That's not mine! That's my son's so I ran towards the bus ( a good 300 meters). I ran as fast as I could and luckily the bus stopped. Driver gave me the MP3 and again off I went to the finish line.
(5) To cut the long story short, I crossed the finish line in over 7 hours. I got my 42km finisher's medal and my finisher's shirt. I didn't run the entire 42km.. I ran about 35 kms in total.. my longest run ever.. I wasn't wasted... I just felt I had a VERY HARD MASSAGE.
I think what made me run longer than what I was supposed to is the people in the SCSM.. There were so many participants of so many levels that I felt that it was really a RUN YOUR OWN RACE Marathon. Unlike here in the Philippines, those joining the 42Km are well-trained to run it. In SG, it's not like that.
I am thankful to all those who entered SCSM 2010. It was a race I will not forget. Though I didn't get to run the entire route, I still felt accomplished with that 35 km run. You may be asking if I will do it again. Maybe.. not sure yet .. but for now I'm sticking to 10Ks first.. maybe do a 10-miler soon and join two half marathons .. but a full marathon? I need to have TIME to do my long runs.. something that unfortunately I really do not have too many of.
2011.. My son's advise.. "Why do you keep on joining races Mom? Why don't you enjoy yourself for the year by just running without the pressure of races?" My son has a point there. I will be running for two years now come March 2011. I decided to take my son's advise and just enjoy running. It feels really good. I am now running every Sunday along my Filinvest Route. I run until I want to stop already. I stopped wearing my Garmin which is actually Freedom for me. I run with Rafael's Sony MP3 and honestly, it feels wonderful....
I do 3 workouts a week .. 2 days of run/bike/run regimen at 1.5km / 10 km / 1.5 km with a speed of 8.9km/hour - 68 - 70 rpm - 9.8km 5x200 speedwork... Planning to do my first duathlon this year, that's why. There's one coming up in July in Tagaytay Highlands... Buying my bike next week - a hybrid one. My legs feel fresh when I do my Sunday runs.. and I love it..
No matter where my regimen takes me... I will always be a runner at heart...
