Overdue report for SAFRA Shears Bridge Run and Army Half Marathon 2006

This year’s edition of SAFRA SHEARS BRIDGE RUN AND ARMY HALF MARATHON had been quite successful as well. I had a good memorable run although not all of it can be considered good. Read on to find out!

26 August 2006
Got all my things packed last night and this morning, it is a good day with exception that I would need to go back to the office to settle some matters. I began my journey to Singapore and was scheduled to meet Jason at around after lunch. I arrived late as the causeway was jam packed and I could not locate the hotel. This time, the hotel (Beach Hotel) proved to be a right choice as it was clean and inexpensive (SGD85) while, its location is just 1.3km away from the starting line. I guess budget hotels within the city are always better. Anyway for the rest of the day, I decided to take a break from shopping or going around town so that I can rest sufficiently for the race. My preparations for this run is as good as nothing due to the fact that I was very much involved in my work earlier, neglecting my training at the same time. I had strategized that in order to survive the full length of the run, I need to rest well. By evening, Bong Seng smsed that he could not join us as he was involved in his work too so with this in mind, Jason and I decided to have our dinner at PastaMania Funan IT Mall. After the dinner, we had a walk around Funan and visited the running shop. Well, there is nothing much new except that for the breathing apparatus that Jamie was talking about. I saw that it was quite big but forgot to enquire about the price. Duh. The shop was quite well equipped and I would really recommend anyone to visit the Running Shop in Funan IT mall. You will be surprised. After that, we just head back to the hotel and on the way, visited 7 Eleven and got my usual race beverage. We adjourned to sleep at around 11pm.

27 August 2006
I was dreaming about some beautiful girl when the alarm woke me up...shucks...there goes the ending. I was feeling somewhat lethargic so I got up and immediately proceed to shower, just to get myself refreshed. Got myself into my running gear and it was already 4.30am when I told Jason I am going for a pre-race run. When I got out from the hotel, the first thing I noticed was how ‘heavy’ the air was. The term heavy was given because the atmosphere really felt stuffy and somewhat a little hot. I was thinking, is it my mind playing tricks on me or really the environment? I took the first step and it was indeed difficult. I am not sure why but then the feeling is that of the same as the previous year’s run, hot and stuffy. While running, there was a general feeling of difficulty in breathing so I tried blotting this feeling in my mind. It was around 4.45 when I got back to the room to finish off my race beverage and already, I was sweating heavily. Shit...this is not that good. I mentioned to Jason that it is going to be a hot day.

5.15am and we began our slow jog to the starting line. As usual, I proceed to the bridge and as I was late, I was located somewhere in the middle of the marina bridge. The first thing that you would really notice is the huge number of participants of this race. I had never seen anything like that before and personally I would think that the number of participants is quite comparable to the Singapore Marathon. I could not help but feeling nervous as this was many times the size of the Mizuno run and I am not sure if I was up to the task of having the ability to finish this race. My breathing turned shallow and I was sweating even more, due to the close proximity of runners around me and the hot environment as well. Just 5 mins before start, I remembered the lesson learnt from previous run where I suffered due to the heat and this time, I told myself no more crazy starts. Just relax and let the legs run naturally. The countdown began....5...4...3...2...1...

5.30am and the horn sounded. It was a slow rush to the starting line. Thirty seconds had since passed but the crowd in front of me barely moved and by the time I crossed the timing mat, it was already more than 2mins. As usual, these crazy guys started like they were on turbos and they really freaked me out! Relax....this is what I kept telling myself as I trying to avoid another incident of bad injuries and rehabs repeating itself. Ten minutes had passed and it was time for me to do a self assessment on my condition. I felt ok and was not thirsty so I decided to skip the water stations but then, I was sweating heavily. I kept this in mind and turned up a notch in my speed as I felt my pace is a little too slow. There were no distance markers so I had to rely on my own gut feeling to get things right. While running, it suddenly dawned on me that I did not manage to potong sayur on even a single runner! I mean, there were bunch of runners running around me and yet, I could not escape from them. Every time I turned up a notch in my running, there were another bunch of runners in front of me. It is as if, there were endless bunch of sayur’s in front. There is seriously no way you can experience the feeling that you are running alone and to me, this is real competition. The pressure is immense as I was used to running on very thin field of runners and not something like what is happening around me. It is for a good 10km or so, the field of runners began to thin down but still, there were many more runners compared to local races.

As I was entering the east coast park, I did another self assessment and I was feeling ok despite the sluggishness of my legs. I knew my chance of completing this race is quite high as the sun had not risen from the horizon and the finishing line is another 45mins run or so. I tried another round of turbo but again, the feeling is the same as the starting where there were endless runners ahead of me and I was in a total blur.

For this year, the organizers had changed the route and we are supposed to run within the city itself, and trust me, it is one magnificent sight. There were endless buildings and one lane was closed for our running purposes only. However, it is also in the city which I did not enjoy part of this run where runners were forced to stop at the traffic lights to let the cars pass through. Many runners threw their arms in the air when the police blocked the runners from crossing the traffic light junction. To me, it felt as if all my efforts to keep the back runners from chasing up with me had been washed down to the drain. It was here that I began to suffer as I had lost the momentum to keep myself going. It was a difficult struggle and I believed that we had lost a good 2 mins as a result of stopping at junctions. To tell you guys the truth, I wouldn’t have mind running in a less scenic route but please, don’t stop the runners from continuing on their journey. There are reasons that I made these statements too because, there were also other runners trying to beat the traffic as they cannot stop and the organizers are actually endangering the runners by not letting them go through. To me, this is one of the most painful moment in running when you have no momentum while we have to finish off the distance. Before long, I was already walking...For a few hundred metres at least. Just right before the turn into the finishing line, I squeezed everything out...as much as I could. Just right before the finishing line, the timing board was flashing 1Hr 57Mins....I beat the singapore timing by a good 2 minutes with some walking thrown in as well! It was a happy moment for me, smashing 2 minutes from such running condition is really something worth to be remembered for. I had never in my life walked such great deal and it was suffering during the last few kilometres. As I entered the finishing line, I collected my hard earned medal and the day is really tough and I was glad that it started that early. If there is a Marathon event slated on this day, it would literally cook our brains out.

Anyway, I waited for Jason to be back and met ST at the Reebok booth. We chatted a little and then saw Jason. He too commented that the weather is a killer here and I guess he was right.....So for now, I guess I'll see you guys in Singapore. Prepare for the heat guys...it's gonna be piping hot!