StanChart Singapore Marathon 2007

I did not sleep well, only have around 3 hour+ of on-and-off sleep. I woke up at 2:15am. Get my breakfast, showered, change and heading out at around 3:15am. I arrive at the Raffles City before 4am. Lots of carpark. I put on some deep heat rub on the part of the leg that I suspect will give me problem. I put some Action cream on my nipple, neck, shoulder and upper thigh. I also first time used a petroleum jelly to put on my right foot. I always has blister on my toes and hope this helps. Some of the volunteer also arrive very early to give briefing and started their day. Thanks for all the volunteer and run-inspiration.

map of the padang


Volunteers coming out of bus


Volunteer briefing

After taking some picture and with the colleague, I put my bag back in the car, grab my watch, HRM, cap and go to the starting point.


And that was 5:15am. I was cutting pretty close. So close that gave me some trouble.

The first trouble is that my Garmin Forerunner 305 is NOT working!! I powered it up and it will power down immediately. I had tried possibly 50 times and even using the reset button sequence. No no use, it did not work. So, I carried extra weight of watch + HRM. But more important, I would not know my progress in both pace and HR!! Because I was cutting it too tight, I could not go back to my car and take my normal watch. I would not even know the time during the race (I had to ask the volunteer on the side from occasionally to know the time. This is my first trouble.

My first 1/3 of the race is uneventful. I run and then switch to walk and switch back to run. The problem is that I typically use my HR to gauge whether I should walk or run. But without my HRM, I switch between walk and run will not work well. I did not even know whether I was too fast or not. But I was following the crowd, possibly too fast on the pace already.

From around 16km, when turning into Mountbatten Rd, I started to develop my second problem. My left ankle on the outside is hitting the counter of the shoe. It happened once before. I believe it is due to the insole/mid-sole compressed due to the pounding. I already made the precaution in adding an additional heel gel on my left foot to lift my ankle a little bit higher. However, seems that it is not high enough. It created a pain on every landing and it is not bearable. I would not finish the marathon if I do not do something.

My thought was to lift my ankle higher by inserting something between the insole and mid-sole of the left shoe. I decided to use the material from the paper cup. I took out the bottom of the paper cub, squash it flat, roll up the top lip so that the whole paper stay flat. And then I fold it in half. Basically, I have a trapezoidal shape of 4 layers of paper. It is about 1mm thick. I first added one to my left shoe and tried it out. It was not thick enough. I pickup a used paper cup on the road side and added another layer. Tried it out and it is still not enough. I had to wait until the next water point to get paper cups. This time, I added two paper cups. Meaning that I had 4 layers of paper cup on my left heel between the insole and mid-sole. The 4mm lift is enough to clear my ankle to the counter.

However, now my heel is sitting about 5-6 mm higher than my forefoot. It became strange to run/walk. Then, I added two layers of paper cup under my forefoot. Now, it is more balanced. However, it created another problem. Now, my left leg is 5-6mm longer than my right, it has affected my running gesture. I start to get a very tight on my ITB at where it is attached to my knee. I could not run at all. I had pain even when just walking. Solution? Add two paper cup to my right shoe, one at forefoot and one at heel. The solution solve the problem. It is amazing how the extra 1mm made the difference. However, my ITB was in bad shape already and I never recovered from it during the race. I had to apply deep heat rub on it every two km just to keep it going. By the time that I solved the problem, I was at 24-25km mark. And I have "destroyed" my ITB and after this point, I can no longer switch between run and walk, I could ONLY walk. This made my second 1/3 of the run extremely slow. I crossed the half marathon mark at around 3 hrs (remember, I did not have a watch) while my 2nd Link half marathon time was 2hr 27mins. Here is the photo of my modified Mizuno with 8 paper cup stuffed between insole and mid-sole.



Now, my objective has changed. Instead of looking at finishing 5:45, my objective is just to finish. I recall some people say, run your first 1/3 of marathon with your mind (meaning pace yourself, but I did not have a watch), 2nd 1/3 of marathon with your legs (are you kidding, my legs are in bad shape), and the 3rd 1/3 of marathon with your heart (this, I totally agreed, without the passion, I possibly had give up at mid-way).

When I arrived at the 27km mark, and suppose to have a gel, they ran out of gel!!! Instead, they gave out powerbar. But powerbar is kind of already "melt" inside the packing and was very sticky and difficult to take. But I had no choice. I had taken the two gel that I carried with me earlier and is running low on fuel. My ITB was tight and it was still 15 km away.

It is only the heart the keep me going. With the shoe problem solved, I re-gathered myself at around 28km. My race really started at 28km. Now, I was mixed with a group of >6hr. Almost all of them are walking. I re-adjusted myself and get myself into a power-walk rhythm. I focused myself on the breathing and kept myself away from thinking about my leg. I let my natural powerwalk style to take over. I started passing people. I was significantly faster than other walkers. I did not know my pace but I used to powerwalk at 7.5km/h. This get me going for about 3 km. But then, my ITB was worsen and my right calve started to cramp. I have to stop every now and then to apply deep heat rub. Luckily, I put a few cc of deep heat rub into a small plastic bag and carry with me. I can rub on it anytime, no need to wait until those water point. I also observe an interesting fact, when I powerwalk, my left ITB is kind of ok. But if I walk slower, the ITB is painful. Well, then just powerwalk!!

Then, I switch my mindset. I told myself that my longest run in practice is 34km, get to the 34km and anything beyond that is a bonus. That works, and I was able to inch myself using powerwalk to 34km+.

At around 35km, I met my two colleagues who are cheering for a few full marathon runners from the team. I re-picked up myself and started a new strategy - Counting each of step from 1 to 10 and start over-and-over again. It is almost like self hypnosis. The heat is not a problem for me. I was not using my full cardio-vasicular capacity due to the slow speed. And I sweet less than normal, therefore, no dehydration problem. Also I did not hit the wall. I was able to keep going at my normal powerwalk pace. But with those stops to rub deep heat rub, I guess the average timing is not great.

After a few km, I reached the Crawford st which goes downhill under the Nicholl Highway and than goes uphill into Republic Ave. I was power walking through which is a dear mistake. I was too fast and cause my right hamstring and outer shin to cramp up. Another minute spent in rubbing deep heat rub. I believe that due to my left leg problem, my right leg compensate for it and overwork. I had to slow down to around same pace as other walker in order to give a break to my right leg. After around 500m, the right leg was getting better and I resume my powerwalk. But both my legs were already overworked. Then, I recalled of the Galloway book of "Marathon, you can do it" and mentioned about mental tricks. I imagine that I had two powerball generated at my hand and I injected them into my legs. The mental trick worked and I get my self going for another 2km until I reached 41km mark.

Both of my legs were almost gone. And I almost run out of deep heat rub. I had to come up with a new strategy to keep me going. Since my stride is about 97cm and it was 1.2km till end. I guess I can start counting from 1 to 1000. And by 1000, I should be on the Padang straight. The countdown kept me going for the last 1km. On the straight, I started running, but it was very painful. Every step, the muscle is telling me to quit and give up. Both left and right leg cramp up in my last 200m dash. But I made it!! I finished at the gun time of 6hr 8mins. For the chip time, it is 6:01:04. From the runpix, I am faster 34% of full marathon runners, 33% of male full marathon runner but only 19% of my category (Male 40-44 in age). Hmmm... meaning that those 40-44 male runners are on average better...

It was tough, very tough. As in the Murphy's law, whatever, can go wrong will go wrong. I had a shin splint three weeks ago and had to stop running for two weeks. I had a failed watch and a pair of shoe that gave me problem. But I am happy that I compete the race, though not at a time that I like, but it is a personal best (first time, of course personal best).

Learnings from the race:
1. Check your equipment before hand, don't take it for granted
2. Must try out the shoe combination that is going to be used in the race.
3. Petroleum jelly works great. I have no blister on my right foot
4. Marathon IS a mental race. Positive thinking is important. I think I won the battle this round.
5. Bring small amount of deep heat rub with you is a good idea
6. Although I put on action cream, I still have nipple abrasion. I think I should have just tape it.
7. My sunblock is useless (anyway, it says that it is effective for 4 hrs only). My kid told me that I got darker. Anyone has any recommendation?