But I am still glad over my mental toughness. To finish so close to my PB despite a busted knee pretty early in the race.
Woke up at 0445 hrs to try catching the trial SMRT service specially extended for the half marathon. Supposedly to wake up even earlier but it was such a challenge after the Ulu Pandan Dongzhi Celebration Dinner the night before. I didn't sleep till around 12mn.
Managed to reach the Buona Vista train station just in time for the first east bound train which was slated to arrive at 0527hrs and oh man the timing was spot on. I thought I would see more people making use of the train service but man the worst is yet to come.
Have to transfer to NEL at Outram Park station to get to Harbourfront. That is where the train got really crowded but luckily I managed to get abroad at first attempt. All in all, it was great for SMRT to provide the early train services. Managed to save on the taxi fares. Haha.
Reached Harbourfront at 0600hrs and started to walk towards the start point which is on the Sentosa Bridge. And bumped into Bee, Sotong, Ray and his spouse I suppose at the start point. I think there were many runners relying on public transport, strangely there weren't many runners around by the time I reached so I ended up to be pretty ahead at the starting pen.
And so the race started, I was on the way of achieving a good PB... I am really close to the 2hr 30mins pacers after 10km plus... Everything is going well, I have controlled my pace pretty well, every km was under 7min/km, and I was not even breathing hard and pushing yet. But suddenly things went horribly wrong, my left knee just gave way out of nowhere. Seems to be ITB (Iliotibial Band) as accordingly to Bose...
Was reduced to walking pace for the next 3km which took eternity to complete. Easily 30 mins. Every stride was painful and I couldn't open my stride. Haha one of the many slopes we got to overcome.
At 14km, I took a look at my watch, I believe that there is still a small chance of a low PB if I just keep going. That's where I started to try open my stride a bit and run a bit after some heat rub but couldn't substain for long due to ITB. So I run a bit, walk a bit, stretch a bit and push myself towards the end point.
But at 18km, the problem got even worst. I think I have overcompensated my left side, my right calf is threatening to cramp anytime. Haha that's it. I cannot open my stride liao. So just jog a bit and walk most of the part back to the end point. I knew that i was pretty close to my PB, and I tried to jog towards the end line, but hahaha cannot man, my right calf almost going to cramp man. So I just limped my way past the end line.
Am really glad to see so many familiar old faces. Besides, I bumped into Cheow at the end point and Meifang also, we somehow will bump into each other at the end of almost every races that we were in together, no matter how crowded the place is. =P
Anyway thanks goodness, I didn't sign up for full. Haha I cannot imagine how am I going to deal with the race with the knee busted so early in the run?
Hmmm I must be lying if I said that I am not disappointed at all. I knew my body well enough to know that I was in much better shape as compared to the past few years. I believe as long as I kept going, I would cut the personal best of mine real soon.
So what have went wrong? I think that I was too overly confident in a way. I already read that there are going to be quite a few slopes in this route, especially in Sentosa. But haha I have failed to prepare myself for them. I have been only running on mostly flat routes. The slopes are most likely the cause of my ITB.
The mileage? Hmmm I know that it was a bit on the low side. But I think that I will keep them low for next year training. My improvement over the year has came due to the fact of "efficient" training. Past few years, I have going for LSD alot, but mostly are aimless, and "just whack only to see how far and how long I can run". This year is a specific short distance with a specific pace. And I keep repeating it to try to push my timing faster, or just go under the targetted pace. It is more kind to my legs in a way, especially my ankle. Not so much repetition of impacts as compared to superb long and slow runs. I do not think I would want to change when it is working well for me.
To sum it up, I think that it's just not my day. I ran out of luck this morning. But I WILL BE BACK.
Just that it's not possible to plan for any races next year yet. I still dunno where will I be next year. I have yet to receive the confirmation of my overseas posting and rumours are that it has been held back. Let's wait and see.
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