Selling Wheels

Training Leading Up To The Run

The Saucony-100Plus Passion Run is my first run for the year. I have been slacking off since last year Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM).

I remember last year, when I made the decision to run my first marathon, my first race building up to SCSM was the Mizuno Wave Run 2006. With much less training, I completed last year’s Mizuno Wave Run at 1hr 07min.

This year, for the Saucony-100Plus Passion Run, I started my training in end-May after a 5 months rest from SCSM. Knowing the little time that I had, I focus my training on intervals. My aim is to go below 55 mins (primary), failing which I will settled no less than completing it within 1 hr.

The Day Before The Run
The day before the Saucony-100Plus Passion Run, was spent celebrating SGRunners.com 2nd Anniversary. Great event, and made more friends.

After the gathering, I headed home. Tired (standing around).

I had a light meal, water and went off to sleep by 10:30pm with a plan to wake up at 4am.

The Day

I woke up as planned (at 4am). Breakfast was 03 x wholemeal bread, 02 x bananas and a cup of coffee.

Did some stretching and start preparing my race gear. I could not find my race belt and had to pin my number tag onto the singlet. Championchip was laced to my Ascis Evolution (2007 shoe for this year marathon). Injinji toe socks prepared.

With no bags deposit for this run, I decided to travel light; cash, credit card, ATM card and identity along with my phone were put in the back pocket of my running shorts.

Daphne was supportive and kind enough to send me to East Coast Park. We reached there early (at 6am) before the traffic build up. It doesn’t take long before the carpark was filled up and traffic starts building up.

I spend some time walking from the start point towards the seafood centre and back. Nothing more than to focus on my breathing and ‘walk’ some time off. As the time ticked towards 7am, the amcee invited participants to join in the warm up session near the stage. Music was in the air.

Catwoman and Spiderman were there as well. Soon it’s time to start. I am with the first wave. Knowing the little preparation that I had, I reminded myself not to rush and followed other people’s pace. It’s my race and I am going to stick to my strategy.

The strategy is simple. Run 4min and walk 1 min (except for the first 10 min). I will also drink once at the U-turn point.

With this strategy, the run was never too punishing for myself. As the walk allowed me to recover.

At the U-turn point, I did a quick check and noticed that my time is 30min. I’m off the pace to go under 55min but still good for under 1hr.

The way back seems a bit more challenging. I need slightly longer walks to recover. But, somehow the distance seems shorter.

Soon, the seafood centre was in sight. It was time to speed up the pace. I took one last walk break of about 15 sec near the ‘360 sea sport area’. Ahead, someone was shouting,”Just 100m more. Go for it!”.

My pace picked up. As I am near the End Point, I heard some kind of count down. Is it for the next wave flag off or is it count down to 1hr? No time to think, I break into a sprint to the finish, cross the line and stop the time. My watch says 59:50.

I had made it to under 1 hr. An improvement over my last 10k run (and lots more to improve).

Suggestions

As I hanged around the End Point and reflects, I think this is a pretty organised run. Thanks to the organisers for putting the effort and planning in place.

Though, the collection point for the ‘Fun Bag’ could be improve. Queue lengthen as the second wave runners arrived. Perhaps, there should be 2 queues rather than 1 as there were about 4 volunteers helping out there.
Other suggestions from fellow runners includes baggage deposit areas, larger holding area for collecting the championchips and maybe additional time clock facing the runners as they are coming in (I did not remember seeing one going into the tunnel).