Everything beyond 15k is new territory for me and I had to look within to recall what had been stored away to get myself to the end. Close to the line, I was stymied not by mental weakness but physical distress. If it's anything, I have re-learnt to lean forward a little, in order to get the run going. Here's how the race went.
Preparation is everything. I went to the site this afternoon to check out parking arrangements and road closures. How I behave on Malaysia cannot be applied here - it's parking strictly at designated lots and not along the curb. A race official assured me transportation to and fro would not be a problem if I got there about an hour early. This is what the start looked like before the on-slaught - all peace and quiet (and empty!):
Nisa and Jamie sent me, intending to get there early but Singapore being Singapore, there was heavy traffic all the way there. We got in with just some time to spare and I started the warmup. If anything, we must go to spore races early because there is always, always, traffic. This was how the season opener run got ruined. At the starting corral, I met my classmate from school and we ran together for the first 3k or so.
It was very very muggy. I typically skip the aid stations until 8k or so but I started drinking at 6k. The stations were fantastic - long and hence able to accomodate many runners at a go, and plentiful. Stories of stations running out of water or 100+, well, this doesn't happen in a Spore race. But all this early drinking was to be in vain.
I was steady, if not timely, up to the 10k mark. 10k is, after all, the distance where we had raced many occassion. Throughout the journey till here, I went past many people. The route was pancake flat and comprised the famed Changi Coastal Rd; this is the road that parallels the runway but from a runners standpoint, long and straight. All mental effort. In training runs past, I had learnt that getting through the mental barrier was to focus on form and glazed straight ahead; well, the lesson was well applied here and until the next stage of the race.
The 15k signboard came up, less slowly then the rest before; my pace had slowed. Every step beyond this was new ground to me. The form overcoming mental bit only worked for another km or so. The singlets and legs (ie the serious looking runners, their seriousness backed up by speed) started overtaking me as I stopped to walk some ways. I tried the "walk 200m after an aid station, and run to the next" style, but that only worked for one aid station. Thoughts of doing a DNF were erased when I saw the 17k sign because I was close. At 18+k, the race turned back into the long straight home; it was here that I started cramping up. Walk, hobble, run and I made it to the end. I dare say that if not for the cramps, I would have registered a much better time. Physically, I was ok and mentally as well.
Best thing was that Nisa and Jamie were there at the end gantry, and Jamie called out to me and saw me wave back. That itself was worth the bloody effort.
Post race 8.32pm on 30 May - I got into the compression tights immediately I got cleaned up after the race and slept in them. They really work - I woke up feeling as if I could run again. Nisa, Jamie and I drove Changi Coastal Rd again and I could not believe I actually was able to go up and down this road; it's long and straight and you can see one end from the other.
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