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Saturday, May 28, 2011

No third time lucky for me

Hmm I'm not very used to the new blogger layout... and am not really in a mood to blog as I'm flying tonight and my itinerary is not done at all...

Plus I'm still upset that I got cheated a third time because I still did not catch my sunrise... sigh.. the first time, too cloudy... the second time, too slow... the third time, too fast (though my friend told me is cloudy also)... cheaterbug!!!

The route is the same as my last year's ultra marathon and thus I did not really practice the route as I know it is quite an easy flat path. Of course, not being in Singapore for the past 9 months is part of the reason I wasn't even practicing in Singapore's humid weather and I'm not sure if that is part of the reason for my poor starting. In fact I was nauseated at the start which I could not figure out if it is true butterflies in the stomach at work, the dinner or I was not feeling good health wise. After all I was rejected for blood donation again due to low blood pressure just 2 days ago and I was feeling light-headed at the start of the marathon.




Thus I barely made it to the U-Turn and kept wishing to be on the other side of the path. I remembered I was in ECP and I saw the top few runners on their ritarno journey, I was so envious. Kept wishing to see the U-turn soon. Itchyfinger was saying U-Turn was the most depressing point for him. But to me, U-turn was the point of motivation. For the last two race, the 20-30 interval, I always run faster. Though this time round, I did not pick up the speed and thus it seems I dropped in performance (having maintained my 21km in roughly about 2hrs 46 mins). But I was quite motivated to keep jogging at the slow pace until I see the slope back (last 3-4km). I remember my first time up that slope was with CL on NB Real Run. Coincidentally, this year's sundown is by NB. I don't really bother who the sponsors are anyway. But I remember how this slope killed me every time, especially the torturous 84 km where I had to climb up twice. So this year, I told myself I should continue slow jogging up the slope as a new accomplishment.

And I'm proud to say, I did it and thus this is my first marathon that I really did not walk as much as I expected. In addition, each marathons, I always seem to have dragged my pacer and for this one, I was feeling extremely bad that I was kinda dragging his performance again for the first 30km because he was running at a pretty good speed which i could not catch up at all. But thankfully, my determination to continue running for the last 12 km rubbed onto him as well as he had reached his mental block whereas I felt energized having drank that super-sweet energy gel (my pacer's advice that I should drink it with water came a kilometre too late when I finally met him at the next hydration point) and refused to stop jogging at least. (Short rest at hydration points allowed.)

Photography Credits: My ever motivating Pacer

The reward, I sliced off about 9 minutes.. not remarkable but well I can now say I can finish a full marathon within 6 hours right haha..
2009 Sundown Marathon - 6:16:14
2010 Spirit of Marathon - 6:07:26
2011 - 05:58:57

Anyway my results breakdown as follows
5km - 00:31:11
10km - 01:09:38
21km - 02:46:17
30km - 04:23:54
Chip Time - 05:58:57


And the reward for all the 'siao lang' (i.e. mad people) haha..

Oh I did try to catch sunrise after breakfast with Itchyfingers and pacer but hmm was too tired to wait too long for it. Body really could not take it after the event, slept the whole day away...

Lastly, good luck to Pacer for his 100km if he decides to challenge himself...
Photography Credits: Pacer

p/s: I'm debating whether this will be the last marathon... cheated too many times already haha...

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahah....bluff one lah. everytime says last one then when the time comes fingers will be itchy and sign again...hahahah....