SCSM 2008

Done with my 2nd half marathon. It would be nice if it's a personal best, but it is not which is kinda expected. I was slower by 10 mins as compared to last year. But considering, the little training and mileage that I have and the many "DNS" for me this year, and the additional injury that I have earlier in the year, I thought that it is already good enough for me to come back in one piece.

I was supposed to tum pang Cheok's vehicle with Balasing. But ended up i didn't. I decided to go a bit later after finally clearing my bowel which wasn't very cooperative this morning and settling my breakfast at the nearby coffee shop. As a result, I was kinda lost by the time I reached, as I couldn't locate any SGRunners. So as I was wandering around and waiting for the start, I somehow managed to see Guet Ping, formerly of SP Track, alone at the Esplanade. Her bf, Baofeng has already left for his marathon. And that's it, I found someone to pace with comfortably, the last time we paced each other is at Army half last year.

Haha I remember I paced with Bee last year, and my engine failed after 10km because she was too fast for me. So this year I decided to change my gameplan by going slow at the start. And thus I was running with GP for the 1st hour and 30 mins before I decided to go a bit faster. Strictly speaking, the plan kinda backfired in both ways - distance markers were all haywired until 12km, and so I didn't know if my pace is good enough for PB. And so it turned out that I was behind time, (1:43 at 12km mark) and so I went faster.

Going faster kinda backfired as well. I should know better. After running at a slower pace for so long, it's quite challenging to go faster. And my engine didn't last long. I started to brisk walk from 17km onwards. At that point, there is a slim chance that I still can get my PB if I continue running.

There's nothing wrong with my ankle, it holds up rather well today i got to say. But my left knee, calf threatened to cramp. And so, I told myself not to risk it and forgo my PB which is totally undeserved if I got it and just brisk walk to the end. In fact, my calf cramped right at the end, 100m before the end point, and I limped my way past the end. And I am only like 2mins ahead of GP. Haha shouldn't have speed up at all.

limping in agony at the end

It's only a half and I am having cramps, can tell that how unprepared I was for this. I finally felt the agony of most of the marathoners, haha this is the first time I run until cramp.

A shot of the tired me after the run by Dasher

Picture with some of the fellow SGRunners at the end of the run

My Adidas inspirator prize

Did you see me today?

Next year, well it's too early to make any decision. But I hope to complete in more races next year. I decided to skip many races this year due to work commitment and pure laziness in a few. And so I ain't in race form. In fact, my last competitive run is the milk run which is like so many months ago. So haha let's hope that I can stick to my resolution for next year.