Sundown Marathon

Sundown Marathon is the first night marathon in Singapore and also has an Ultra category. My longest distance before is 52.5km. I am trying to tackle this 84km.

I had flu about a week before Sundown. By yesterday, I still have some running nose and occasional cough. I know it is not good to do the run. I plan to walk all the way. Before the start, I told Tim that it is going to be only 50:50 that I can finish. I plan at least 60km and will see how it goes after that.

Here is the route and my timing.



I have planned good detail on each km's pace. If I can follow it to the dot, I will finish at 14:28:00. I printed the whole timing on a piece of card. At the beginning, I am able to follow my timing of 7km/h. However, my heartrate is between 140 to 150+. In my normal practice at 7km/h, my heartrate is below 130. I knew that my flu is causing the extra high heartrate. I have difficult in building up buffer since my heartrate goes above 150 when I try to push to 7.5km/h. I used to able to do 8km/h. The flu has cause me to work harder but still slower.

By 21km, I was still within my plan, about 2 minute ahead. I started to have the tendon behind my left knee to be tight. I removed my patt strap, make some adjustment to my tight but it is still not good. The SKINS is very good everywhere else except the part behind the knee, I am not sure whether that is one of the underlying reason of DNF.

I spent too much time at the Bedok Town Park support table, when I restart after the break, my 2 minutes buffer is gone. The tendon behind the knee continue to be a problem. I have to take a break every few km to massage it.

I finished the first lap at 2:58am, 6 hr 28 minutes for the first lap, it is right on my plan. For the next 11km, I lost about 2 minutes when compared to the plan. Since my plan has only 2 minutes buffer, the chance of finishing within cut-off time is slipping away. At about 16km on lap 2, I am getting slower and slower. I need about 6km/h but I occasionally need massage to my knee and falling behind the schedule by about 3.5 minutes. The possibility of finishing within cut off time is fading away. I decided to "hypnotize" myself and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. It works, I forget the pain and did a few km of 6.5km/h. But at about 19km mark, I had a blister on my right heel. The blister is filled with fluid and is causing pain. I reach the U-turn point and ask if they have any medic kit to treat the blister. However, they don't have anything. I put some tissue paper to isolate the blister from touching any part of the shoe and it works. However, at the same time, my left knee is stiffened to a point that I cannot walk properly. I can only limping at 4km/h. I think my "hypnotize" period has stretched the knee beyond recoverable state. In the last 10km, I can massage it and then I can do another 2km or so. But now, even with massage, use the thought of "causal walk" cannot bring it back. I knew that there is a medic at the point going to Siglap park connector. I drag myself for 2km (it took me half an hour for the 2km!!) to the junction. However, the medic told me that they have run out of deep heat rub. He spray the cold liquid onto it and it feels better. However, after crossing the bridge, it is pain + pain + pain. I can only go at 4km/h. With 20km to go, it will take me at least 5 hours but the clock has 3 hr 45 minutes left. It is not possible for me to finish within cut-off.

So, I took the painful decision to get a cab at the Siglap Park Connector and go back to Changi Village. I have finished 64.5km - the longest distance that I have ever done.

I was really really exhausted. In the cab, I feel cold and shivering. I told the cab driver to turn off the air-con. When I get off the cab at Changi Village, the cold wind make me shiver again. I was feeling cold. I knew that my body has performed beyond the limit that I had today. If it is not for the flu that got me, I think I will do it better. The body feels really really bad when I cool down. When I return home and eat noodle, I found that I temporarily lose my taste bud. The noodle has no taste at all. The blood in my body is concentrated to protect my core, my limbs are a bit cold. I have to sleep inside a blanket without air-con for 1-2 hours to get back to normal.

Though I have DNF. I tried my best. I had the longest distance that I have ever covered (previously, the longest is MR25 Ultra of 5 laps). And next time, I will conquer the 84km.