I have not blogged in a long time, but i must record this momentous event in my life- completing 21.1km, the half marathon, held Dec 6, 2009. Although I take long jogs rather regularly, I have never exceeded the 14km mark- simply because my leg muscles would cramp up and that I felt bored. So when I decided to sign up for Standard Chartered Maratho earlier in June, I thought I should train for it- obviously I didn't.
Despite all the ill-preparation, I thank God for literally giving me the strength to pull through.
I woke up at 3.45am only to go back to sleep because 'I still had time'. Ended up taking a cab from my house to the start point- because I subsequently woke up at 5.15am and the the standby time for my event was slated at 6.15am.
We were flagged off at 6.50am at the start point located next to One Fullerton by a few ministers and important people such as BG George Yeo and some CEO from Stand Chart Bank. The entire crowd pretty much started to dash even though it was barely 100m into the race.
I joined in the frenzy and was running at 1.5x my regular pace- all I wanted to do was to get past the marina bay and highway portions of the race early in the morning before soot and exhaust fumes reach intolerable levels from the morning traffic. Initially, I thought I covered a good 6km into the race, but the signboard said ‘8km’, which I presumed was the distance I covered- that was false hope. The following signboard just about 10mins from that signboard read ‘6km’, and I was rather flustered because I was pacing myself based on wrong distance readings. I was almost gutted but sth inside me did hint, for me to just trust God that He will give me the strength to continue whatever dist I had to cover.
And so I did. I didn’t stop per se, but I did walk for about 20m as I grabbed my cup of water at every drinks station which was located 3km apart. I didn’t know how far I had covered because each step became heavier and the road seemed never-ending. The mid-way point of the half marathon was somewhere near Kallang, where there were many adjacent paths which really compounded the ‘it’s-not-ending’ thought in my head.
Now, I’ve heard from my friends, that a first time runner just had to be able to cover 14-15km and he/she can just rely on adrenaline to cover the remaining 6km. I’m not sure if that advice applied to me, because all I knew that when I reached the 14km mark, I told God, ‘Jesus, the remaining 7km, is yours.’ By then, my legs started to ache- it is not the best feeling when you still have a third of the dist to cover.
Funny thing is, although my legs were aching, I was still breathing at a regular pace, my heartbeat did not increase as much, neither did I perspire a great deal (at that point in time)- what I was wearing probably contribute to the rapid rate of heat loss.
As I completed the Kallang and Mountbatten parts of the route and headed back towards the city, I located some lone runners to pace. Did try to encourage a couple of them to ‘push’ (as the supporters would always yell), but they fell back in the end.
You could imagine my excitement (and exhilaration) when I saw the 17km mark- I thought to myself, ‘it’s just 4km- I won’t be fazed by that.’ Boy, was I wrong. As I made my way towards the last drinks station (18km mark), every inch of muscle in my legs were revolting against my mind. The struggle between mind and body became really intense as I threw my last (empty) cup on the ground- to fully prepare myself for the last 3km.
2km. That was what the board located next to the Esplanade read.
‘Push!’, ‘C’mon runners, a bit more!’ screamed the suporters at the sidelines.
‘Runners, raise your hands in the air if you’re still alright!’ yelled the Flying Dutchman (Radio Deejay from Class 95) at the Stamford Bridge.
There I was, trying to maintain my pace, at every step of the way, searching for clues of the ‘Finish’ point.
And there, in the distance, was the Padang and that oddly familiar banner with the words proudly printed in all caps and in bold font, ‘FINISH’.
Oh the strides I took to complete that last 100m, and look up at the clock which read 2h 11 mins – half marathon finisher.
When I past that finishing line, I felt like I could accomplish everything in the world at that time- except the full marathon.
